Attitudes of mental health professionals toward mental illness : comparisons and predictors : a project based upon an investigation at Department of Youth Services, Massachusetts

This quantitative descriptive study examines the differences in attitudes toward mental illness and the mentally ill between different groups of mental health workers by asking the following questions: Do mental health workers with higher levels of education show lower levels of mental health stigma? Do mental health workers with more experience in the field show lower levels of mental health stigma? This study uses a data set collected with the help of David Browne and analyzed by Marjorie Postal of Smith College. The sample consists of 64 DYS staff who attended a Staff Appreciation Day and filled out a survey which included demographic questions and the 40-item Community Attitudes Toward Mental Illness (CAMI) Questionnaire. The findings of this research showed that that the amount of time working in the field had significant associations with levels of Authoritarianism and Benevolence, two of the four constructs measured by the CAMI