Volunteering in psychiatry: Attitude and actual working

Objective: To assess public attitude, actual working commitment and the res pective influence of demographic, psychological and sociological variables on voluntary help in psychiatry. Methods: Multiple logistic regression anal ysis of the results of a representative population survey in Switzerland. R esults: Public attitude is mostly positive, but the respective working comm itment is small. Attitude depends on gender, psychological factors (social distance, stereotypes), and on attitude to community psychiatry. For the wo rking commitment, clearly distinct predictors are found: age, emotions, par ticipation, and perceived discrimination to the mentally ill. For both atti tude and commitment, having a social profession and interest in mass media are predictors. Conclusions: Internationally compared, Switzerland has a po sitive attitude and a big commitment in lay helping in psychiatry. But atti tude is different from actual commitment. Lay helpers' work must be limited to realizable tasks and they need professional recruitment, instruction, a nd supervision otherwise they tend to be overburden. The unused potential o f voluntary helpers has to be opened specifically, e.g. by involving mass m edia and opinion-makers.