Social workers are the primary providers of public mental health services (Redick, Witkin, Atay, & Manderscheid, 1994; SAMSHA, 1998), but social workers are leaving this field of practice (Newhill & Korr, 2001). The goal of the Alabama Department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation is to improve public mental health care; therefore the Department needs to retain well-trained practitioners A national study, (Newhill & Korr, 2001), sampled 2000 post-masters clinical social workers about attitudes toward clients with severe mental illness and problems clinicians encountered. Findings suggested that clinical social workers are leaving public mental health practice because of their attitude that burnout is a common problem, clients often fail to follow through on treatment recommendations, and it is intellectually challenging to understand severe mental illness. Clinical social workers were also challenged by the quality of their education and training and frustrated by system problems The Newhill & Korr Study (2001) was adapted to determine if licensed social workers in Alabama held similar attitudes, experienced similar frustrations, and encountered similar challenges. A random sample of 600 licensed social workers was mailed an anonymous closed and open-ended questionnaire in April 2004. One hundred and eighty (N = 180, 30%) usable questionnaires were returned Results of the present study indicate that social workers do leave the mental health field and attitudes of social workers in Alabama are similar to findings reported in the national study. Attitudes that social workers hold are impacted by their pre and post service education and training. However, there are significant differences. Surprising differences in attitudes exist between licensed bachelor and masters' degree social workers. This study adds to scholarly literature about licensed social workers in Alabama attitudes toward clients with severe mental illness However, the findings of the study about practice issues and challenges should be generalized to the population with caution because of the small sample size of social workers who currently practice with clients with severe mental illness (n = 56). Future research on how best to support public psychiatric social workers is needed. To improve services to clients with severe mental illness in Alabama these issues should be addressed