Working with persons with serious mental illness: implication for social work recruitment and retention

Educating and recruiting practitioners to work in community-based settings with persons with serious mental illness has become a national health person-power issue, particularly in underserved rural areas. This study was conceived in order to obtain a better basis for curriculum development and recruitment strategies. Graduate and undergraduate social work students, representing the greatest pool of mental health practitioners, were surveyed about their perceptions about working with persons with serious mental illness and about factors which are most important to their future job satisfaction. The findings indicate positive perceptions about work with the seriously mentally ill population by a significant number of students, and further reveal that students project job satisfaction factors related to intrinsic reward and ability to learn and grow in their work. The findings also reveal group differences related to educational level, previous work experience in mental health and expressed interest in working with persons with serious mental illness. Important implications for practitioner education, recruitment, administration and job development and ongoing in-service training are discussed.