Sources of fear
Most students (80%) nominated the following as causing their fear.
• lack of knowledge as the basis of their apprehension. This lack of knowledge included content knowledge and knowledge of roles within mental health.
• concern for their personal safety,
• doubt of their own coping skills,
• ignorance of the client group.
Some students identified other lesser factors as the source of their fear (in order of magnitude).
• academic workload - considered heavy for third year
• lack of experience
• media misconceptions
Clearly some of the above are directly related to the primary role of the therapist-educator.
By the end of the semester (11 weeks later) there was a transformation of the negative attitudes into more positive attitudes and expectations. Students indicated excitement about - linking theory to practice during their fieldwork (75%),
• increasing confidence in moving outside their comfort zones - that is in taking risks (71%),
• increasing interest in Mental Health (66%),
• and increasing confidence to meet challenges that the field might pose for them (38%).
However, some of the students were still
• hesitant (42%)
• and small numbers of students (less than 5%) still felt that they did not know enough, were worried about physical violence and did not know what to expect.
The transformation from two thirds of the students being afraid of Mental Health to three quarters of them wanting to experience Mental Health and almost as many feeling confident to move beyond their comfort zones is remarkable.
