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Abstract
The recruitment of students in health professions into the area of mental health has been shown to be influenced by their attitudes towards the area, with such attitudes possibly shaped in the same way as many of the attitudes towards mental illness are by the general community. The purpose of this study was to examine the attitudes of occupational therapy students and compare them with the attitudes of the general community, and further, to examine any changes in attitudes which occurred after completion of a fieldwork placement working with mentally ill people in community settings. Seventy-four third year occupational therapy students completed the Community Attitudes Towards the Mentally Ill (CAMI) instrument before, and at the completion of a 12 week fieldwork placement. Results showed that, before placement, students' attitudes towards the mentally ill were more positive than the attitudes of a community population, and after their community placement, the students' attitudes showed a significant and positive improvement. The implications of these findings are discussed and related to methods of teaching.