The current status of academic-mental health linkages in Rhode Island

The purpose of this study is to describe the current status of academic-public mental health linkages in the State of Rhode Island by querying key informants concerning their opinions in the following areas: clinical orientation and preferred clinical interventions, specific approaches to academic-mental health linkages, training and educational opportunities, obstacles to a career working with persons who have persistent and severe mental illness, and recommendations to improve academic-mental health linkages. Forty-eight of sixty key informants, among them academics, mental health administrators, clinical practitioners and consumer advocates, responded to the mailed survey. More than half the respondents rated affective disorders, schizophrenia and substance abuse to be their highest concern as professionals; most subscribed to biological models of mental illness as well as a variety of prevailing treatment strategies employed in the care of persons with severe mental illness; generally they rated the current status of academic-mental health linkages to be low, but recommended a range of remedies to improve and increase collaborative efforts.