Dr Homer Byrne Summary

One of the biggest contributors for poor healthcare is the stigma against mental health. This stigma allows healthcare providers to view those with a mental illness as having low relevance, thus creating disinclination towards providing adequate resources and/or care. This negative stance, based on misinformation and prejudice creates those that have a mental illness to lose their self confidence. Because of this loss, people with mental illness decide not to contribute to their health or livelihood. In the past fifty years, many advances have been made in mental healthcare. However, with the attached stigma, many people choose to not seek out treatment.

Stigma is a destructive shadow which follows mental health, inevitably impacting on the process of recovery. In Australia, statistics show that one in five individuals experience mental illness, of those 74% (SANE Australia,2013) reported being affected by stigma. With such statistics, it is crucial to understand the recovery process in mental health and the extent to which stigma influences on this process.

Misinformation and misperception about mental illness can lead to the stigmatization of ourselves, our parents, our children, our spouses and others that we care about. The consequences of stigma range from social isolation to poverty to barriers to quality treatment and care. Stigma perpetrated on a grand scale can result in a system that reinforces the idea that people diagnosed with mental illnesses are unimportant and therefore are unworthy of access to quality and affordable care. Some media outlets (films and television) serve to perpetuate negative stereotypes and reinforce stigma. Although relatively few people with mental illness act out in

While stigma may not necessarily be a cause of a person’s mental disorder, it can certainly contribute to the complication and perpetuation of their illness. The effect of stigma goes well beyond just the patient and provides a commentary on society’s overall level of intolerance of those who are considered different from the majority. By recognizing the level of stigma that exists, perhaps we can alter that behavior and gravitate towards a more productive attitude towards mental illness.

Within the past two decades there’s been a revival in efforts to reduce stigmatization attached to mental illnesses. It was concluded that if mental illnesses were perceived better as ‘real’ diseases by the public that stigma would go down greatly. Reports proposed the idea that better scientific understanding of mental illnesses by the general public could greatly reduce stigma. Stigma is intensely rooted in social and cultural norms it’s patterns devalue and dehumanize groups of individuals within society (in this case mentally ill people). Stigma constructs barriers for individuals, barriers that limit a person’s abilities to have equal opportunities for employment, safe housing, health care and social relationships.Efforts to reduce stigma in recent years have

In this article, Patrick J. Corrigan, Scott B. Morris, Patrick W. Michaels, Jennifer D. Rafacz, and Nicolas Rüsch discuss various approaches to challenge the stigma that surrounds mental

Nearly 9 out of 10 people with mental health problems expressed that stigma and discrimination has had a negative impact on their lives. Stigma is a mark of shame that separates a person from others, when someone is characterized by their mental illness, they are viewed as part of an often negatively stereotyped group. For those who suffer from mental illness life is already challenging, so having to cope with prejudice and stigma from those around them only worsens their condition and their day to day life harder. Stigmatisation of mental illness is caused by false stereotypes and creates many problems such as self stigmatisation, employability issues, misrepresentation in the media and a

Stigma normally relates when we are speaking about people’s ethical choices and conduct and that people may pass a moral judgment on. Mental health has been taking back to the eras of the moral defective as the main judgment and supports a prejudiced arrogance. The determinations to change individual approval and cultures’ views of the impression of mental ill health are creditable. Words like stigma to define humanity’s combined views of mental health difficulties and the individual and public trials people experience. Some people approve stigma and feed into the concepts that specialist are trying to test.

The evidence presented suggests that the biomedical model alone is not sufficient to reduce stigma, rather approaching mental illness in a holistic way has greater success in reducing stigma in the community. By combining the biomedical and psychosocial model together with treatment information researchers have found more positive attitudes towards those with mental illness. It is important to reduce stigmatising views of mental illness to prevent discrimination and improve the quality of life. Moreover, when individuals internalise public views on themselves they may feel shame, become depressed and have the belief that there is not point seeking help resulting in social isolation. Stigma is widespread amongst the community from lay people

Worldwide, mental health challenges are the leading cause of Disability Adjusted Life Years (DALYs) and account for 37% of healthy life years lost from Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) (WHO, 2011a). Among the 43 million individuals living with a mental health challenge in the U.S., an average of 40-60% do not receive adequate mental health care, if any at all (SAMHSA, 2015). Research has shown and continues to reveal that the stigma of mental health remains one of, if not the most significant barrier to mental health treatment (Corrigan et al., 2014). The purpose of this paper will be to discuss the philosophical framework missing from mental health education, while shedding light upon how this approach could significantly impact mental health care attitudes, beliefs, access and treatment. This is an important topic because stigma not only affects how providers treat their clients, but it also impacts greater occupational, cultural and societal views on mental health challenges, and in turn, the individual suffering from mental health challenges. Additionally, continuing to neglect this issue perpetuates a façade among mental health educators and practitioners, of a unidimensional high-ground, dismissive of the fact that mental health providers are erroneous humans.

It is estimated that 43.5 million Americans, adults 18 or older, live with mental illness. This number represents 18.1% of all U.S. adults (National Institute of Mental Health, 2014). Stigma toward those who are seen as different have existed for as long as civilization itself, with the stigma for mental illness being one of the most prominent and long lasting that society has had to face throughout its ages (Arboleda-Florez & Stuart, 2012). Increased understanding and awareness for those individuals suffering from mental illness is necessary for us to overcome the impacts stigma has on our society.

During a mental health event the First Lady, Michelle Obama said, “At the root of this dilemma is the way we view mental health in this country. [...] Whether an illness affects your heart, your leg or your brain, it’s still an illness, and there should be no distinction.” This shows that mental illness stigma in society is based on mental illness being perceived more negatively than other physical illness when it should actually be seen as the same. Stigma around mental illness has had very immense adverse effects on the willingness of undiagnosed suffers to not seek treatment when they need it. As a result of this one in five people with a mental illness will not get the treatment they need which has the effect of high suicide rates among the untreated sufferers. In an effort to reduce stigma around mental illness, so that more undiagnosed sufferers seek treatment, schools should devote more time to increasing awareness of mental illness and its effects.

There are many stigmas, or misconceptions and misperceptions in our society which need to be shattered. I believe that one of the worse possible effects of stigma is that it causes those affected by psychological disorders, or mental illness, to crawl more deeply into themselves because it provokes a sense of shame. Stigma thrusts those suffering with mental illness into a sense of isolation, social exclusion, and discrimination. “Stigma can lead to discrimination … It may be obvious or direct … Or it may be unintentional or subtle…” (Staff). Stigma is often as big as the illness itself and I confess to having been a perpetuator of this dreaded thing, although not consciously aware and without the intent of furthering the harm of someone.

On Wednesday, October 7th, 2015, I attended a panel discussion on mental health issues. The goal of this presentation was to bring forward the voices of those who have lived with and are still living with mental illness and discuss the best ways to fight stigma associated with mental illnesses. The members of the panel educated the audience on stigma, discussed how to fight stigma, and also shared how to provide support for those with a mental illness.

Stigmatizing is usually used by people to address the stereotypical set of negative belief and attitude towards the diagnosis of mental illness (Loh and Ghorab, 2011). The action of stigmatizing is unfortunately not new, and it has been years that people oppress the mentally ill by defaming them. How miserable it is that 90% of the mentally ill in the United States of America did not receive proper mental health care due to being stigmatized. Don’t you wonder how many percent of the mentally ill are being stigmatized these days, on a global scale?