Attitudes of postgraduate nursing students towards consumer participation in mental health services and the role of the consumer academic

Abstract

Consumer participation in health care is increasingly becoming an expectation of health services. While important progress has been made in the mental health area, the attitudes of mental health professionals towards consumers poses a severe limitation. Greater consumer involvement in the education of mental health professionals has been presented as a strategy to encourage the development of a greater acceptance of consumer involvement by health professionals. A consumer academic position has been introduced into the Centre for Psychiatric Nursing Research and Practice. An important aspect of this role concerns the education of postgraduate psychiatric/mental health nursing students, in order to provide a consumer perspective and encourage greater consumer participation. In order to determine the impact of this project a questionnaire was developed by the authors to measure attitudes to consumer participation and the role of the consumer academic. This paper presents the first stage of this study. The questionnaire was administered to students (n = 25) on the first day of the course. The findings suggest that most students favour a high level of consumer participation but that this is limited to specific areas of treatment planning and delivery. Furthermore, the students' demonstrate some level of ambivalence regarding the value and necessity of the consumer academic role.

Front Line Workers’ Attitudes towards Psychiatric Advance Directives

“…Additional research has examined mental health providers' willingness to empower patients (Hanse et al 2004;Happell et al 2002;Kent and Read 1998), as well as providers' attitudes toward involuntary commitment (Bowers et al 2003;Encandela et al 1999;Lepping et al 2004; Taylor, manuscript submitted for publication). The results from the current study are consistent with three themes that emerge from this literature: (1) there is some front-line provider resistance to sharing power with the patient; (2) providers' attitudes and values have some influence on their practice decisions; and (3) mental health providers often must choose between competing values when working with clients.…”

Design and Implementation of an Educational Partnership Between Community Pharmacists and Consumer Educators in Mental Health Care

“…27,28 The use of consumers as educators has largely been restricted to nursing and medical education, where their contribution has been reported to be well received. 36 Other reported advantages of using consumers are improved attitudes and a positive impact on nursing practices. 37,38 Although the benefits of pharmacists' membership in mental health advocacy organizations have been presented, 39 the research team did not retrieve any published reports of people with mental illnesses being previously employed in the continuing education of community pharmacists.…”

A Depression Training Session With Consumer Educators to Reduce Stigmatizing Views and Improve Pharmacists’ Depression Care Attitudes and Practices

“…22,23 The use of mental health consumers as educators has been well received in nursing and medical education, especially in Australia. 24 A study demonstrating the potential value of consumer educators in the education of community pharmacists stated that use of consumer educators should be considered as a strategy for improving the confidence and communication skills of community pharmacists in providing pharmaceutical care for people with mental illnesses such as depression. 23,25 Meanwhile, several studies demonstrated that using consumer educators for pharmacy students reduced mental health stigma, 17,26 improved attitudes, and increased students' self-reported sense of empathy toward people with schizophrenia and depression, even on a long-term basis.…”