Social Work Students’ Interest in Working with Persons with Serious Mental Illness

Changing MSW students' attitudes towards the severely mentally Ill

“…Spending time with the seriously mentally ill can be a critical factor in changing attitudes and may be an effective way of recruiting social workers and other human service professionals into working with this population (Drolen, 1993;Werrbach & DePoy, 1993). While didactic, seminar and video presentations have resulted in short-term attitude changes (Costin & Kerr, 1962;Morrison & Becker, 1975;Tuller, 1976) many researchers now feel that structured contact with mentally ill persons which emphasizes their strengths and allows them to educate the non-mentally ill person, is critical to long-term generalizable attirude change towards the severely mentally ill (Deforges et al, 1991;Evans, 1976;Minkoff, 1987;Segal, 1978;Yuker, 1988).…”

“…Social workers have expressed little interest in working with the severely mentally ill (Atwood, 1982;Johnson & Rubin, 1983;Werrbach & DePoy, 1993) and prefer to work with more intellectually and emotionally rewarding clients.…”

“…The few recent studies that have been done reveal that: professionals do not view the severely mentally ill as a preferred population to treat; comprehensive resources to meet the needs of this group are lacking; and professional training to work with the severely mentally ill is inadequate (Mirabi, Weinman, Magnetti & Keppler, 1985;Werrbach & DePoy, 1993). Minkoff (1987) states that professional resistance to working with the severely mentally ill is related to: avoidance of the severely mentally ill by society at large; avoidance of the severely mentally ill by the medical profession in general; and inadequate training and peer support for mental health professionals to overcome affective and attitudinal barriers to working with this population.…”

Bachelor of Social Work Students and Mental Health Stigma: Understanding Student Attitudes

“…For example, Butler (1990) found that social work students do want to enter traditional social work fields of practice with disad vantaged and stigmatized groups, including those with mental illness. In addition, Werbach and Depoy (1993) surveyed graduate and undergraduate social work students and noted that students generally had positive perceptions of those with mental illness and were open to working with individuals with severe mental illness. However, studies with other disciplines found that stu dents expressed apprehension about working with people with mental illness (Happell, Robins, & Gough, 2008) and viewed mental health professionals as having low status, as receiving lower salaries (Hinshaw, 2007), and as being underappreciated by clients and by society (Corrigan & Kleinlein, 2005).…”

“…Social workers are frequently identified as the largest group of direct mental health service providers (Eack & Newhill, 2008;Werbach & Depoy, 1993), such that social workers are esti mated to account for between 60%-70% of mental health professionals in the United States (Proctor, 2004). Research suggests that this is particularly true for those areas in which there are limited resources (Newhill & Korr, 2004).…”