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Front Line Workers’ Attitudes towards Psychiatric Advance Directives

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Abstract

Studies have begun to explore provider attitudes’ toward psychiatric advance directives (PADs) and how those attitudes are related to provider characteristics. The study gathered attitudinal data from a sample of 193 social workers serving mentally ill adults. Social workers with pro-healthcare power of attorney (HCPA) attitudes were likely to have prior experience with an HCPA and to believe that involuntary treatment violates the NASW Code of Ethics. Social workers are more favorable of HCPAs than advance instructions. The findings suggest that clinical experiences with PADs may positively impact social worker’s perceptions of the law.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Greenwall and MacArthur Foundations, a National Research Service Award Postdoctoral Traineeship from the NIMH to Drs. Kim and VanDorn and NIMH K02 to Dr. Swanson. The corresponding author was also supported, in part, by the DHHS Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (R24 HS013353) and the NIH National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities (P60 MD000239)

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Health, Social, and Community Research, Shaw University, 900 South Wilmington Street, Room 207, Raleigh, NC, 27601, USA

    Mimi M. Kim

  2. School of Social Work, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA

    Anna M. Scheyett, Laura A. McDaniel & Joelle Ferron

  3. Services Effectiveness Research Program in the Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC, USA

    Eric B. Elbogen, Richard A. Van Dorn, Marvin S. Swartz & Jeffrey W. Swanson

Authors
  1. Mimi M. Kim
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  2. Anna M. Scheyett
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  3. Eric B. Elbogen
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  4. Richard A. Van Dorn
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  5. Laura A. McDaniel
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  6. Marvin S. Swartz
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  7. Jeffrey W. Swanson
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  8. Joelle Ferron
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Correspondence to Mimi M. Kim.

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Kim, M.M., Scheyett, A.M., Elbogen, E.B. et al. Front Line Workers’ Attitudes towards Psychiatric Advance Directives. Community Ment Health J 44, 28–46 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10597-007-9104-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10597-007-9104-9

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