Hospital staff's perceptions of the alcoholic

Belief in the dangerousness of people with mental disorders: a review

BACKGROUND

The scientific literature on stigma has been confused because there are multiple components of stigma with different correlates. In order to help make sense of this confusion, the present review focuses on research on one of the most commonly measured components - belief in dangerousness.

METHOD AND RESULTS

The review examines: measurement of belief in dangerousness; prevalence of belief in dangerousness; characteristics of people who believe in dangerousness; experiences associated with belief in dangerousness; characteristics of people that elicit belief in dangerousness; the effects of psychiatric labelling; the effects of causal explanations; interventions to reduce belief in dangerousness; and effects on help-seeking.

CONCLUSION

It is concluded that future research needs to focus on rigorous evaluation of interventions to reduce belief in dangerousness and the impact of this belief on people affected by mental disorders.

The Effects of the Problem-Based Alcohol Early-Intervention Education Package on the Knowledge and Attitudes of Students of Nursing

The profession of nursing is seeking to establish its unique professional identity by developing discipline-focused research and clinical practice supported by university education. However, according to refereed literature, educating undergraduate nurses in alcohol-related problems is lacking. The literature reveals that nurses in general lack the necessary knowledge, attitudes, and skills to work with problem drinkers. Alcohol early intervention is advocated as a strategy compatible with contemporary nursing practice. This paper reports a study that commenced with the development of a problem-based, five-week Alcohol Early Intervention Education Package (AEIEP). This package became an intervention around which the knowledge and attitudes of a sample of 212 students of nursing were evaluated. A comprehensive instrument was developed to measure the respondent's knowledge and attitude regarding alcohol-related problems in general and specifically in early intervention. The effects of the education intervention on the different strata of students, were examined in a quasi-experimental, pre-post test design. The findings demonstrated it had a significant effect on the knowledge and attitudes of students enrolled in an integrated bachelor of nursing curriculum.

Project Hope: changing care delivery for the substance abuse patient

Project Hope is a program designed to assist healthcare providers in the assessment, care, referral, and follow-up of the hospitalized substance abuse patient. First implemented in 1990 at what is now called University Hospital in San Antonio, Texas, the program has influenced care in a positive way through change in the attitude and knowledge of personnel, administrators, and community. In this paper, the authors provide an overview of the approaches utilized, improvement process, and outcomes obtained from this project. To formally evaluate the effectiveness of Project Hope, a quasi-experimental, Solomon-Four design study was conducted. Eighty nurses from various educational backgrounds and experience with alcohol were divided into groups by nursing unit. A normative-reeducative intervention was applied as described by Chin and Benne. Test of cognition showed significant change (p < .01) in the experimental group; no significance was found for attitudes change. Reasons for these findings and lessons learned from the process are described.

Attitudes toward problem drinkers: cognitive, affective, and behavioral intention dimensions

Attitudes toward problem drinkers were investigated in an experiment utilizing a 2 X 2 X 2 X 2 multivariate analysis of variance design. Subjects read one of eight case vignettes about hypothetical stimulus persons and then completed verbal report inventories to assess attitudes. All vignettes were identical except for references to the stimulus person's drinking behavior (problem or nonproblem drinking), sex, and socioeconomic status (upper-middle or low). Sex of the rater was the other independent variable in the four-way design. Problem drinking elicited a powerful halo effect such that attitudes toward persons exhibiting such behavior were found to be negative relative to normal drinkers in all attitudinal domains and across almost all variables measured. Drinking behavior may have exerted such a strong effect that the potential influence of the other variables was overpowered.