A study done by Corbiere, Samson,
Villotti, and Pelletier (2012) examined different strategies used to fight the
stigma of mental illness. The study considered the perspectives of three
different groups: Clinical (mental healthcare workers), experiential (those who
use mental health services), and organizational (managers, researchers, and
others). The study was done during an annual Canadian conference entitled
“Combating Stigma, a Collective Challenge!” A total of 315 people participated
in the survey, which could be completed either online or on paper.
Of the 315 participants, 277
answered the question relevant to the study: (44%) were clinicians, and (27%)
used mental healthcare services. The remaining participants were comprised of
managers (10%), coordinators (8%), researchers/professors (3%), friends and
family (3%), students (1%), and other (4%). The question was opened ended and
worded as follows: tell us briefly what you do to reduce prejudice and stigma
toward people with a diagnosis of a mental disorder.
After reading all of the answers,
the researchers established 15 categories of strategies, which were then
grouped into six separate themes. The most common strategy used was
education/teaching (42%). Over a third (32%) cited normalizing as a strategy.
In most cases, normalizing is used when communicating with someone with a
mental disorder. It entails treating the individual just as you would treat
anyone else. One clinician stated, “I act normal, I treat them like whole
people and I ignore the illness.”
Other strategies emerged as well.
Two strategies that focused on the person with the mental illness were working
on recovery (19%) and working on social inclusion. The sharing/encouraging
strategy (9%) was directed at the general public and involved having a user of
mental health services share their story with people in an attempt to alter
others’ opinions of those with mental illnesses. Other less common strategies
included listening/caring (11%), accepting/respecting (8%), meeting/coming
(3%), doing introspective work (6%), and being natural (2%).
Despite the low incidence of doing
introspective work and being natural, these two are important, as the authors
state that before this study was performed, self-directed strategies were
rarely spoken of. For someone “being natural,” one would not disclose their
diagnosis and would normalize mental illness for those that they meet. As one
user of mental health services reported, “ I live with a diagnosis of mental
disorder…to counter the prejudice and stigma I choose to act like a person
without distinction.” This study has highlighted the importance of including
different stakeholders in research in order to provide a more complete
perspective on a subject.
This study was very interesting and I'm glad they made a collaborative effort to get it done. I really like the topic because mental illness does have a very large stigma attached to it and fighting that stigma is an important issue. I like that you included details about the results that they gathered and I think that if was involved in the study I would've advocated for education like a majority of the respondents did. I think that your blog and this post are helping to end the stigma attached to mental illness as well.
ReplyDeleteI’m definitely not surprised that education/teaching came out on top as the most common strategy. I never heard of the normalizing strategy but I imagine that it is very effective. The being “natural” strategy is also interesting but I’m not sure if everyone would be able to pull it off. Some mental illnesses might be easier to live with than others and I can’t imagine someone who is schizophrenic would be able to normalize their behavior. The very nature of their mental illness makes it difficult to act without some sort of distinction. Anyhow, I have truly enjoyed reading all your blog posts. I’m a psychology major and this topic is very interesting to me. Well done!
ReplyDeleteYour post is great and fits in with the progressive moment that is happening with a lot of the topics across the nation. I feel that if we look at how schools can allow for there to be an open discussion about these types of illnesses. One has to look at the misconceptions and then bring someone that actually has the illness to talk about how they are able to live a normal life. Education is fundamental for any type of topic because if all start playing telephone and spread information that way soon people will think they are contagious.
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