How stigma interferes with mental health care (original) (raw)
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The Impact of Mental Illness Stigma on Seeking and Participating in Mental Health Care
Psychological science in the public interest : a journal of the American Psychological Society, 2014
Treatments have been developed and tested to successfully reduce the symptoms and disabilities of many mental illnesses. Unfortunately, people distressed by these illnesses often do not seek out services or choose to fully engage in them. One factor that impedes care seeking and undermines the service system is mental illness stigma. In this article, we review the complex elements of stigma in order to understand its impact on participating in care. We then summarize public policy considerations in seeking to tackle stigma in order to improve treatment engagement. Stigma is a complex construct that includes public, self, and structural components. It directly affects people with mental illness, as well as their support system, provider network, and community resources. The effects of stigma are moderated by knowledge of mental illness and cultural relevance. Understanding stigma is central to reducing its negative impact on care seeking and treatment engagement. Separate strategies ...
Stigma and its impact on help-seeking for mental disorders: what do we know?
Epidemiologia e Psichiatria Sociale, 2008
SummaryAims – Many people suffering from serious mental illness do not seek appropriate medical help. The stigma of mental illness has often been considered a potential cause for reluctance in seeking help. We review recent evidence on this topic. Methods – Narrative review of the recent literature on stigma and helpseeking for psychiatric disorders. Results – There is proof of a particular stigma attached to seeking help for a mental problem. Anticipated individual discrimination and discrimination qua self-stigmatisation are associated with a reduced readiness to seek professional help for mental disorders. Intervention studies show that destigmatisation may lead to increased readiness to seek professional help, but other aspects like knowledge about mental diseases seem to be at least as important. The belief that seeking help for a mental health problem is actually helpful has been shown to be at the core of help-seeking intentions and thus offers a promising target for informat...
Psychological Medicine, 2014
Background Individuals often avoid or delay seeking professional help for mental health problems. Stigma may be a key deterrent to help-seeking but this has not been reviewed systematically. Our systematic review addressed the overarching question: What is the impact of mental health-related stigma on help-seeking for mental health problems? Sub-questions were (a) what is the size and direction of any association between stigma and help-seeking? (b) to what extent is stigma identified as a barrier to helpseeking? (c) what processes underlie the relationship between stigma and helpseeking? and (d) are there population groups for which stigma disproportionately deters help-seeking?
Stigma of Mental Illness-2: Non-compliance and Intervention
Mens Sana Monographs, 2012
The consequences of stigma are preventable. We argue that individual attention should be provided to patients when dealing with stigma. Also, in order to deal with the impact of stigma on an individual basis, it needs to be assessed during routine clinical examinations, quantified and followed up to observe whether or not treatment can reduce its impact. A patient-centric anti-stigma programme that delivers the above is urgently needed. To this end, this review explores the experiences, treatment barriers and consequences due to stigma. We also offer putative solutions to this problem.
Mental health-related stigma in health care and mental health-care settings
The Lancet Psychiatry, 2014
This Review considers the evidence for mental-health-related stigma in health-care and mental-health-care settings. Do mental-health-care and other health-care professionals stigmatise people using their services? If so, what are the eff ects on quality of mental and physical health care? How can stigma and discrimination in the context of health care be reduced? We show that the contact mental-health-care professionals have with people with mental illness is associated with positive attitudes about civil rights, but does not reduce stigma as does social contact such as with friends or family members with mental illness. Some evidence suggests educational interventions are eff ective in decreasing stigma especially for general health-care professionals with little or no formal mental health training. Intervention studies are needed to underpin policy; for instance, to decrease disparity in mortality associated with poor access to physical health care for people with mental illness compared with people without mental illness.
Understanding the impact of stigma on people with mental illness
World psychiatry : official journal of the World Psychiatric Association (WPA), 2002
Table 1 Comparing and contrasting the definitions of public stigma and self-stigma Public stigma Stereotype Negative belief about a group (e.g., dangerousness, incompetence, character weakness) Prejudice Agreement with belief and/or negative emotional reaction (e.g., anger, fear) Discrimination Behavior response to prejudice (e.g., avoidance, withhold employment and housing opportunities, withhold help) Self-stigma Stereotype Negative belief about the self (e.g., character weakness, incompetence) Prejudice Agreement with belief, negative emotional reaction (e.g., low self-esteem, low self-efficacy)
Stigma of Mental Illness-1: Clinical reflections
Mens Sana Monographs, 2012
Although the quality and effectiveness of mental health treatments and services have improved greatly over the past 50 years, therapeutic revolutions in psychiatry have not yet been able to reduce stigma. Stigma is a risk factor leading to negative mental health outcomes. It is responsible for treatment seeking delays and reduces the likelihood that a mentally ill patient will receive adequate care. It is evident that delay due to stigma can have devastating consequences. This review will discuss the causes and consequences of stigma related to mental illness.
Reassessing Mental Illness Stigma in Mental Health Care: Competing Stigmas and Risk Containment
Social Science and Medicine, 2020
Research on mental illness stigma tends to focus on the most severe diagnoses and settings, and it pays insufficient attention to how the treatment process itself relates to stigma. This study, calling on 28 interviews with providers treating a wide range of mental problems in varied settings, addresses these issues. Findings reveal that stigma is associated with treatment across settings and severity, although dynamics vary based on the intensity of setting. Mental illness stigma competes with other stigmas in presenting for treatment. Once in treatment, mental health care acts as a stigma-mitigating “stamp” of risk containment for other societal systems and institutions, signifying that risks posed by clients' problems are being officially contained.