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A descriptive study of multidisciplinary mental health staff moving to the community: the demographic and educational issues
Author(s) -
BUGGE C.,
SMITH L. N.,
SHANLEY E.
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
journal of psychiatric and mental health nursing
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.69
H-Index - 63
eISSN - 1365-2850
pISSN - 1351-0126
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2850.1997.tb00176.x
Subject(s) - multidisciplinary approach , mental health , nursing , legislation , descriptive research , health care , service (business) , medicine , descriptive statistics , medical education , psychology , psychiatry , sociology , political science , social science , statistics , economy , mathematics , law , economics
A descriptive study of multidisciplinary mental health staff moving to the community: the demographic and educational issues Mental health care philosophy has moved from the containment of patients within institutions to the integration of clients within the community.‘Caring for People’(a Department of Health report) and the subsequent legislation enshrined the philosophical shift in law. Previous policy reports had indicated that staff required training to move from a hospital‐based service to a community‐based service, but did not propose content, and no systematic study of the needs of mental health staff has been carried out. Therefore, this study aimed to identify the skill and information needs of a group of multidisciplinary staff in preparation for the movement from hospital to community settings. The study design was a descriptive survey sampling of a total multidisciplinary population in Scotland. Data were collected using questionnaires and semistructured interviews with a small volunteer subsample of respondents. This paper presents the first set of study findings related to the demographic and educational issues. Differences between hospital and community staff and between health care assistants and qualified staff are demonstrated for demographic and educational factors. Proposals are made for managers, professionals, educators and researchers.