By Terrie Johnson | UAB Community Health & Human Services Intern

Social and cultural constructions inform people’s perceptions, attitudes, and viewpoints about mental health. Such perceptions gain expression in social norms and can escalate and spiral into beliefs, which societies relay through myths and labels. Over time, these negative and incorrect beliefs about psychopathology attain widespread acceptance as the truth and engender stigma against mentally ill patients. Wogen & Restrepo (2020) assert that many societies have entrenched biases and stereotypes concerning mental health because of ignorance and the dearth of professional knowledge. They have created erroneous labels and viewpoints, which act as barriers to mental health treatment and hinder mentally ill patients from attaining their full potential. These beliefs also instigate bigoted or negative attitudes towards mentally ill patients, spawn negative prejudices, and weaken familial, social, and institutional responses to mental health issues. For example, people ascribe negative tags towards mentally healthy patients, such as violent, irrational, burdensome, and inadequate.

They tend to avoid, isolate, and segregate them based on these rigid and unfounded fears and perceptions (Pescosolido et al., 2019). This perpetuates inequality and maltreatment of patients who also have to contend with the challenges of their mental health problems at the institutional level. According to Sickel et al. (2019), stigmatizing people with mental health promotes self-doubt and hinders them from seeking treatment and striving to attain their full potential. They conceal their symptoms, adopt antisocial tendencies, and ultimately seek solace in narcotic drugs and substances, among other maladaptive behaviors. Thornicroft et al. (2019) suggest strategies through which societies can counter and overturn these negative beliefs and perspectives while concurrently preventing inculcation and installation of new ones. For example, social workers can rehabilitate and avert the internalization of self-doubt among mental health patients and encourage them to seek therapy.

They can also conduct public awareness and education campaigns to counter false beliefs concerning mental health at the societal level. In addition, they can employ advocacy and lobby for implementing policies that protect and advance the welfare of mental health patients. In summary, many societies stigmatize mental health patients based on false assumptions and perceptions. This results in social stigma, discrimination, deprivation, and maltreatment. Social workers can employ diverse personal, societal, and institutional strategies to correct this situation. These countermeasures include rehabilitation and eliminating obstacles to treatment, among other efforts to help them lead fulfilling and productive lives.

References

Clay, J., Eaton, J., Gronholm, P. C., Semrau, M., & Votruba, N. (2020). A systematic review of core components of mental health stigma reduction interventions in low-and middle-income countries. Epidemiology and Psychiatric Sciences, 29, e164-e170.

Pescosolido, B. A., Manago, B., & Monahan, J. (2019). Evolving public views on the likelihood of violence from people with mental illness: Stigma and its consequences. Health Affairs, 38(10), 1735-1743.

Sickel, A. E., Seacat, J. D., & Nabors, N. A. (2019). Mental health stigma: Impact on mental health treatment attitudes and physical health. Journal of Health Psychology, 24(5), 586-    599.

Thornicroft, G., Bakolis, I., Evans‐Lacko, S., Gronholm, P. C., Henderson, C., Kohrt, B. A., &    Sartorius, N. (2019). Key lessons learned from the INDIGO global network on mental health-related stigma and discrimination. World Psychiatry, 18(2), 229-230.

Wogen, J., & Restrepo, M. T. (2020). Human rights, stigma, and substance use. Health and Human Rights, 22(1), 51-60.