The effects of a behavioral training program on nonprofessionals' endorsement of the “psychosocial” model

Abstract

An experiment was conducted to determine the impact of behavioral training on psychiatric aides' endorsement of a psychosocial versus medical model. Following an eight-week training program in behavior modification, experimental staff significantly changed their attitudes in a direction away from the "medical" model and towards the "psychosocial" orientation, relative to a no-training control group.The findings were discussed in terms of the utility of such a measure for evaluating "behavioral community psychology" interventions.* Expcrimcntal staff who missed sessions (a nonfrqucnt occurrence) attended individual make-up sessions with a research assistant.

Highlighting the Way Forward: A Review of Community Mental Health Research and Practice Published in AJCP and JCP

“…Publication dates for articles pertaining to mental health stigma ( n = 40, 16%) ranged from 1974 to 2013, with equal distribution across the four decades. Several of the earlier published articles focused on the attitudes of mental health staff toward their clients, often encouraging staff to move away from a medical model of mental illness to a psychosocial model that takes into account contextual influences on mental health (e.g., Jeger & McClure, ). Later, researchers began to assess general community member attitudes about mental illness, focusing on topics ranging from attributions about the controllability of mental illness (Corrigan et al., ) to mechanisms for reducing stigma using naturalistic interpersonal contact (Couture & Penn, ).…”