UW- Stout McNair Conference Presentation

"My name is Delaney Collins, and I’m a fourth year Social Work and Psychology major at the University of Wisconsin- Eau Claire. I plan to apply to clinical psychology Ph. D programs this fall, so I wanted to target my independent project on what I want to research in graduate school, which is schizophrenia. 

Schizophrenia is described as a severe and persistent mental illness that affects an individual’s perception, feelings and behavior, and many of us are familiar with the positive symptoms of schizophrenia, such as hallucinations and delusions, but a schizophrenia diagnosis also encompasses negative symptoms, like anhedonia and catatonic stature, and also an array of cognitive symptoms.

Severe mental health issues are prominent in college students, and as a student and future clinician, I'm interested in the initial onset of psychosis and symptoms of schizophrenia, which are typically observed in college-age years. Unfortunately, there is very little knowledge in the published literature about the preparedness and/or comfort of college counseling center staff’s ability to work with students with schizophrenia. It is also unclear how counselor attitudes and stigmas may also impact, relate to, and affect perceived comfort and preparedness to work with students who have schizophrenia.

The aim for my research is to better understand the capability and comfortability of university center counseling staff when working with students with severe needs/issues, specifically regarding schizophrenia. 

To do this, I am utilizing a mixed-methods approach in my study. I've created and distributed a survey to college counseling staff in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois and Michigan, where my questions target staff’s perceived self-knowledge of working w/ students with schizophrenia, the type of training they have received in graduate school, continuing education or while working at the university, and the attitudes, stigma and general comfortability they have regarding individuals and students with schizophrenia. I will be analyzing this data in the SPSS software, where I will run various tests in hopes to observe potential patterns, similarities, or discrepancies. 

For my qualitative approach, I am conducting semi-structured interviews with several directors of university counseling center, which allows me to ask more in-depth questions about the various procedures directors have in place when working with a severe and persistent mental illness, specifically for schizophrenia, any training that is provided, and their perception of their staff’s knowledge for working with students with severe and persistent mental illnesses.

I will be using the Grounded Theory approach for coding my qualitative research, where I’ll be able to analyze each individual portion of my transcripts, and work to categorize these elements into general themes. Applying structure to my interviews easily translates into my interpretation of participants responses, and how they differ and are similar to one another.

While I am in the midst of collecting my data, I hope to have at least 200 completed surveys and 3 to 5 interviews. This summer has been difficult recruiting participants, since many counselors are not contracted until late August, so I am finally beginning to hear back from more participants. Right now I have 32 surveys and 3 interviews completed. 

I have been able to be financially compensated for my research by my university's office or research and sponsored programs and the McNair program. The assistance and support shown by my mentor, dr. Jennifer Muehlenkamp and the McNair faculty has allowed me to engage in this independent research project, which will make me a recognizable candidate for graduate study." 

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