Stigma of mental illness is (still) a barrier to care and help-seeking 128 Responses » Mar 10 2014 Nikki Newhouse Posted by Nikki Newhouse shutterstock_114491743 Imagine the following scenario: you have been feeling really down for quite a while and think the time has come to get some help. You book an appointment with your doctor and tell her how you’re feeling. She doesn’t make eye contact, she thrusts a leaflet and a prescription at you and tells you to come back in a couple of months. Or this one: you pop along to your local doctor’s surgery because you are concerned about stomach pain that you are experiencing every time you eat. Instead of examining you thoroughly and perhaps referring you on for further investigation, your doctor sighs, asks if you would like to increase the dosage of your antidepressant and wonders if you would like to talk to someone about your health anxieties. Odd, right? Not so for those who suffer from – or who have previously suffered from – mental health issues. Welcome to the reality of stigma. People with mental health problems often feel patronised by front line health care professionals. People with mental health problems often feel patronised by front line health care professionals. According to the Opening Minds interim report, commissioned by the Mental Health Commission of Canada, some of the most deeply felt mental health stigma comes from front line health care professionals. Discrimination is often unintentional but can include negativity about a patient’s chance of recovery and misattribution of unrelated complaints to a patient’s mental illness. As a result – unsurprisingly – many people who would benefit from mental health services opt not to pursue them or fail to fully participate once they have begun. We’ve all heard the statistic: approximately 1 in 4 people have a mental health problem. Yet, in Europe and the USA, up to 75% people with mental health disorders do not receive treatment; delaying or avoiding formal care is associated with poor outcomes, especially for those with psychosis, bipolar disorder or major depression or anxiety disorders. As underlined just last week by Clement et al.’s systematic review of quantitative and qualitative studies, stigma associated with mental illness is an important factor in the reluctance to seek help for psychiatric distress, with ethnic minorities, youth, men and those in military and health professions disproportionately deterred by concern about how they will be perceived if they seek help. Unfortunately, this isn’t exactly new news. Previous Mental Elf blog posts have tackled this subject and despite the fact that we know more than ever before about the lived experience of mental illness and relatively open discussion about mental health issues is firmly part of our public discourse, stigma towards people with mental illness still exists amongst the general public and, crucially, seems to be particularly entrenched in medical professionals. Such discrimination affects both those seeking help for psychological distress and those with a history of mental health issues who are seeking medical support for somatic problems, and is identified as being a major barrier to quality care, treatment and recovery. Living with stigma is worse than the illness itself - See more at: thementalelf.net/publication-types/report/stigma-of-mental-illness-is-still-a-barrier-to-care-and-help-seeking/#sthash.YbDTrWOd.dpuf
Posted on: Tue, 18 Mar 2014 10:48:15 +0000
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