Exercise prescription for people with mental illness: an evaluation of mental health professionals knowledge, beliefs, barriers, and behaviors

Objective: The aim of this study was to understand the knowledge, beliefs, barriers, and behaviors of mental health professionals about physical activity and exercise for people with mental illness. Methods: The Portuguese version of The Exercise in Mental Illness Questionnaire was used to assess knowledge, beliefs, barriers, and behaviors about exercise prescription for people with mental illness in a sample of 73 mental health professionals (68.5% women, mean age = 37.0 years) from 10 Psychosocial Care Units (Centros de Atenção Psicossocial) in Porto Alegre and Canoas, state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. Results: Most of respondents had received no formal training in exercise prescription. Exercise ranked fifth as the most important treatment, and most of the sample never or occasionally prescribed exercise. The most frequently reported barriers were lack of training in physical activity and exercise prescription and social stigma related to mental illness. Professionals who themselves met recommended physical activity levels found fewer barriers to prescribing physical activity and did so with greater frequency. Conclusion: Exercise is underrated and underused as a treatment. It is necessary to include physical activity and exercise training in mental health curricula. Physically active professionals are more likely to prescribe exercise and are less likely to encounter barriers to doing so. Interventions to increase physical activity levels among mental health professionals are necessary to decrease barriers to and increase the prescription of physical activity and exercise for mental health patients.

Centro de Atenção Psicossocial e território: espaço humano, comunicação e interdisciplinaridade / Psychosocial support center and territory: human space, communication, and interdisciplinarity

Resumo Este artigo aborda a reforma psiquiátrica a partir da dimensão teórico-conceitual, por meio do conceito de território, analisado como espaço humano, como comunicação e relacionado ao modo de produção de conhecimento interdisciplinar. Estes conceitos (território e interdisciplinaridade) foram identificados em entrevista semiestruturada com o psiquiatra e professor Pedro Gabriel Delgado, que os qualificou como operativos. Concluímos que essa compreensão permite que teoria e prática configurem-se como práxis, como atividade produtora de sentido e de transformação, possibilitando a estreita relação entre o funcionamento dos serviços substitutivos e a transformação da relação entre loucura e sociedade.

Abstract The psychiatric reform is addressed from a theoretical and conceptual perspective through the concept of territory, which is analyzed as human space, as communication, and as related to the way interdisciplinary knowledge is produced. These concepts (territory and interdisciplinarity) were identified in a semistructured interview with the psychiatrist and professor Pedro Gabriel Delgado, who classified them as operative. We conclude that this understanding enables theory and practice to be configured as praxis, producing meanings and transformations and enabling close ties between the functioning of community-based services and the transformation of the relationship between insanity and society.