The educational goals of people with psychiatric disabilities.
OBJECTIVE
Many people with psychiatric disability have educational goals. In this paper, we survey a sample to describe the frequency of academic interests, specific goals related to this interest, and barriers that undermine education.


METHODS
One hundred and four people from a large Midwestern mental health center completed the Educational Goals Survey (EGS) which was developed with feedback from two consumer focus groups.


RESULTS
Almost two thirds of respondents never got beyond high school education. Of this group, 54.5% wanted to go back to school. Reasons for returning to school included improving one's job status and enhancing personal growth.


CONCLUSIONS
Two sets of barriers emerged from the data; those which are consistent with any adult student and those which must be addressed because of disability. We make sense of these data by comparing results with the U.S. Census where appropriate.
Corrigan
Patrick W
PW
Institute of Psychology, Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, IL 60616, USA. corrigan@iit.edu
Barr
Leah
L
Driscoll
Hilary
H
Boyle
Michael G
MG
D000328:Adult; D001714:Bipolar Disorder / Q000523:psychology / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D002321:Career Choice; D003155:Community Mental Health Centers; D003865:Major Depressive Disorder / Q000523:psychology / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D005260:Female; D017144:Focus Groups; D006040:Goals; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015146:Midwestern United States; D009042:Motivation; D012050:Rehabilitation, Vocational / Q000523:psychology*; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D012565:Schizophrenic Psychology; D014830:Vocational Guidance