Skip to main content
ABCT 2024 58th Annual Convention Main banner
Psychology Tools Ad
Final Program


Icon Legend
This session is not in your schedule.
This session is in your schedule. Click again to remove it.
Presentation Icons
Recorded Session
Recorded Session
Ticketed Session
Ticketed Session
Back

Dissemination & Implementation Science

(PS9-45) Undergraduate Collaboration in a Psychiatric Setting: How Volunteering Impacts Staff, Patients, and Volunteers Themselves

Saturday, November 16, 2024
11:30 AM – 12:30 PM EST
Location: Franklin Hall, Level 4, Marriott Downtown
Abstract Text: To better serve underserved populations, clinicians must understand the obstacles and benefits of community collaborations. One such important collaboration is that of university undergraduates and psychiatric hospitals. Current research suggests that most patients, with the option to refuse interaction with students, support and enjoy responsible student engagement. Past studies also suggest that volunteering may change perceptions of mental illness and lead to positive, enriching experiences. However, much of this depends on student and patient demographics. Further, the quantity and generalizability of this research is limited and dated. Additionally, to date, there is no research focused on the perspectives of students and staff in reciprocal, collaborative relationships. To address these gaps, we plan to conduct structured interviews with 80 undergraduate volunteers, 17 psychiatric hospital staff, and 20 patients from a state psychiatric hospital. Volunteers must have served for at least 10 hours within the previous year. Staff and patients must have had interactions with volunteers within the previous six months. Each interview is structured to understand how the collaboration affected clinical care, influenced research projects, developed learning opportunities, and changed perspectives. We also seek to understand how a volunteer’s reasons for participation, their unique responsibilities, and demographics of the volunteer, patient, or staff may affect the overall experience. We will use latent content analysis to analyze interview data. This is a qualitative study, which inherently comes with some limitations, including subjectivity and limited generalizability. Despite these, our findings can guide future research in community collaboration, and can support psychiatric facilities as they consider involving volunteers in their clinical and research efforts.