title: Reducing medical students' stigmatization of people with chronic mental illness: a field intervention at the "living museum" state hospital art studio.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The authors designed an intervention to reduce beginning medical students' stigmatization of people with chronic mental illness (CMI).
  
  
  METHODS
  Pre-clinical medical students visited a state psychiatric facility's "Living Museum," a combination patient art studio/display space, as the intervention. During the visit, students interacted with artist-guides who showed their work and discussed their experiences creating art. Students completed a self-assessment survey developed to measure attitudes and feelings toward people with CMI after half of the class visited the Living Museum, constituting a Visit/No-Visit cross-sectional comparison.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Students who visited the Living Museum (N=64), as compared with those who did not visit (N=110), endorsed more positive attitudes toward people with CMI. Among the students who visited, however, those who reported having spoken individually with a patient-artist (N=44), paradoxically, indicated less-positive feelings toward people with CMI.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  An intervention in which pre-clinical medical students visited patient-artist guides in an art-studio setting generally improved students' attitudes toward people with CMI. Thus, nontraditional psychiatric settings offer a valuable adjunct to more traditional clinical settings to reduce stigma when introducing medical students to the field of psychiatry.
authors: NYS Psychiatric Institute and Columbia University’s College of Physicians and Surgeons New York, NY, USA. cutlerj@nyspi.columbia.edu
authors: Janis L
authors: JL
authors: Cutler
authors: Kelli J
authors: KJ
authors: Harding
authors: Lucy A
authors: LA
authors: Hutner
authors: Clarissa
authors: C
authors: Cortland
authors: Mark J
authors: MJ
authors: Graham
mesh_terms: D001154:Art; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D006778:Hospitals, Psychiatric; D006783:Hospitals, State; D006801:Humans; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000523:psychology; D028642:Persons with Psychiatric Disorders; D011570:Psychiatry / Q000193:education; D013240:Stereotyping; D013337:Students, Medical / Q000523:psychology*