The development and evaluation of a community mental health education program for seminarians

Because the clergy stands in an ideal position to serve the mental health needs of the community, seminaries have, for some time, included courses in pastoral counseling and related skills. While valuable, these courses tend to focus on the traditional clinical relationship excluding the broader role of community interventionist. Viewing this need, a course was developed to train seminarians in principles and practices of community mental health. The 28 students were compared to 24 controls at the beginning and end of the term. Evaluative instruments were the Community Mental Health Ideology Scale, two scales adapted from the Theological School Inventory, a self-evaluative competence scale, and a role evaluation scale. Data within a 2 X 2 X 2 design were subjected to an analysis of variance. Experimentals were found to exceed controls on the Community Mental Health Ideology Scale (p less than or equal to .001), the competence scale (p less than or equal to .01), and role evaluation scale (p less than or equal to .01).