Psychiatric rehabilitation degree- gran ting programs and practitioners' knowledge and practice patterns

Abstract This article reports on a study that investigated the relationship between practitioners' level of knowledge of psychiatric rehabilitation and certain professional characteristics of 279 practitioners from New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Having received a degree from a university psychiatric rehabilitation specialty department had a significant and substantial relationship with the study's knowledge variables, and was superior to other factors in predicting knowledge level of psychiatric rehabilitation goals, beliefs, and practices. However, relatively few (16%) of these practitioners had benefitted from this type of training so that the majority of these practitioners did not possess the basic knowledge of modern principles and practices. It was concluded that a serious information and technology transfer gap exists between the psychiatric rehabilitation knowledge base and practices in the field. Recommendations were suggested based upon the study's findings.