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Stigma and discrrimination
Stigma and discrrimination
by SEE-MH-INFO on Wed Jun 25, 2008 8:26 pm
Stigma and discrimination
Stigma and discrimination against those experiencing mental health problems must be addressed.
Stigma is a major cause of discrimination and exclusion: it affects people's self-esteem, helps disrupt their family relationships and limits their ability to socialize and obtain housing and jobs. It hampers the prevention of mental health disorders, the promotion of mental well-being and the provision of effective treatment and care. It also contributes to the abuse of human rights.
Service users and carers have long battled stigma and discrimination. The lack of support for organizations of service users and carers and poor advocacy hinder the design and implementation of policies and activities sensitive to their needs and wishes.
Stigma and discrimination against those experiencing mental health problems must be addressed.
Stigma is a major cause of discrimination and exclusion: it affects people's self-esteem, helps disrupt their family relationships and limits their ability to socialize and obtain housing and jobs. It hampers the prevention of mental health disorders, the promotion of mental well-being and the provision of effective treatment and care. It also contributes to the abuse of human rights.
Service users and carers have long battled stigma and discrimination. The lack of support for organizations of service users and carers and poor advocacy hinder the design and implementation of policies and activities sensitive to their needs and wishes.
Stigma of mental illness
by SEE-MH-INFO on Sat Jul 12, 2008 5:23 pm
A large proportion of individuals who suffer from the symptoms of a mental illness will avoid seeking treatment for their symptoms because of the social stigma[2] associated with having a mental illness. The US Surgeon General acknowledged this in 1999:
Powerful and pervasive, stigma prevents people from acknowledging their own mental health problems, much less disclosing them to others.[51]
(Pic: » Tim Sanders)
As a result many people feel the need to keep their mental illness a secret, and will deny the symptoms that they are experiencing. Two thirds of the people who would benefit from treatment for a mental illness do not receive treatment.[52] As with many physical illnesses, the prognoses of a mental illness can worsen the longer that a mental illness remains untreated. The added anxiety of fearing a mental illness diagnoses can also be detrimental to an individual's mental health, this effect can greatly exacerbate an anxiety disorder or mood disorder. Efforts are being undertaken worldwide to eliminate the stigma of mental illness.
[center]Social stigma
Social stigma is severe social disapproval of personal characteristics or beliefs that are against cultural norms. Social stigma often leads to marginalization.
Examples of existing or historical social stigmas can be physical or mental disabilities, disorders or illnesses, as well as illegitimacy, homosexuality or affiliation with a specific nationality, religion (or lack of religion[1][2]) or being deemed to be or proclaiming oneself to be of a certain ethnicity, in any of a myriad of geopolitical and corresponding sociopolitical contexts in various parts of the world.
The perception or attribution, rightly or wrongly, of criminality carries a strong social stigma.
Stigma comes in three forms:[3] Firstly, overt or external deformations. Examples of this are scars, physical manifestations of anorexia nervosa, leprosy, or of a physical disability or social disability, such as obesity. Second, known deviations in personal traits. For example, drug addicts, alcoholics, and criminals are stigmatized in this way. Third, "tribal stigmas" are traits of an ethnicity, nation, or religion that is deemed to constitute a deviation from the what is perceived to be the prevailing normative ethnicity, nationality or religion.
Although the specific social categories that become stigmatized can vary across times and places, the three basic forms of stigma (physical deformity, poor personal traits, and tribal outgroup status) are found in most cultures and time periods, leading some psychologists to hypothesize that the tendency to stigmatize may have evolutionary roots.
Powerful and pervasive, stigma prevents people from acknowledging their own mental health problems, much less disclosing them to others.[51]
(Pic: » Tim Sanders)
As a result many people feel the need to keep their mental illness a secret, and will deny the symptoms that they are experiencing. Two thirds of the people who would benefit from treatment for a mental illness do not receive treatment.[52] As with many physical illnesses, the prognoses of a mental illness can worsen the longer that a mental illness remains untreated. The added anxiety of fearing a mental illness diagnoses can also be detrimental to an individual's mental health, this effect can greatly exacerbate an anxiety disorder or mood disorder. Efforts are being undertaken worldwide to eliminate the stigma of mental illness.
[center]Social stigma
Social stigma is severe social disapproval of personal characteristics or beliefs that are against cultural norms. Social stigma often leads to marginalization.
Examples of existing or historical social stigmas can be physical or mental disabilities, disorders or illnesses, as well as illegitimacy, homosexuality or affiliation with a specific nationality, religion (or lack of religion[1][2]) or being deemed to be or proclaiming oneself to be of a certain ethnicity, in any of a myriad of geopolitical and corresponding sociopolitical contexts in various parts of the world.
The perception or attribution, rightly or wrongly, of criminality carries a strong social stigma.
Stigma comes in three forms:[3] Firstly, overt or external deformations. Examples of this are scars, physical manifestations of anorexia nervosa, leprosy, or of a physical disability or social disability, such as obesity. Second, known deviations in personal traits. For example, drug addicts, alcoholics, and criminals are stigmatized in this way. Third, "tribal stigmas" are traits of an ethnicity, nation, or religion that is deemed to constitute a deviation from the what is perceived to be the prevailing normative ethnicity, nationality or religion.
Although the specific social categories that become stigmatized can vary across times and places, the three basic forms of stigma (physical deformity, poor personal traits, and tribal outgroup status) are found in most cultures and time periods, leading some psychologists to hypothesize that the tendency to stigmatize may have evolutionary roots.