March Discussion

This month's article was a very interesting read about a topic that is quite a prevalent issue affecting our population, now more than ever. With mental health and the stigma that surrounds it, leading to many negative assumptions being made towards the affected individuals, it makes seeking help more difficult than it necessarily should be. Individuals affected with mental health disorders face many difficulties in life, whether that be the affects that the disorder takes on them mentally and physically, or the fear of asking for help with their disease; mental health is one facet of present day life, that needs to be addressed with greater acceptance and accessibility. This article suggests that the primary reasons for people suffering from mental health disorders to not access help is the stigma and discrimination. This negative stigma and discrimination causes for the public to look at the affected individuals differently because of a disorder that they have no control over. This disorder may affect the person in some manners, however a person's disorder does not define their life, and stigma leads to the individuals to become more emotionally hurt, as they are being categorized due to their disorder and not their personality. Destroying the stigma around mental health will lead to great breakthroughs and allow for individuals affected with mental health not to feel ashamed to seek the extra help they deserve. With organizations, such as Time for Change, pushing to make accessing mental health help more acceptable and helping eliminate the discrimination that individuals experience, the handling of mental health will improve. With this in mind, training of medical personnel needs to be re-evaluated for dealing with mental health patients as negative experiences will continue to cause for patients to avoid seeking help (as stated in the article).

Keeping an open mind, towards any and all individuals will ensure stigmas and discrimination is avoided, and will allow for everyone to live their lives in a manner that best suits themselves.

Reference

Henderson, C., Evans-Lacko, S., & Thornicroft, G. (2013, May). Mental illness stigma, help seeking, and public health programs. Retrieved March 31, 2021, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3698814/

The article that was given this month is very important as it outlines the many issues surrounding mental illness. Virtually everyone suffers from mental illness in one form or another however, stigma and discrimination still prevail. The vast majority of the population experience mental illness, however stigma remains. Society has created an environment where mental illness is frowned upon. As such, stigma affects those suffering as well as influences their individual access to care. By adding a negative connotation to mental health, individuals suffering are often more likely to shy away from receiving the treatment they need. An interesting point that was mentioned in the article regards people with more severe mental disorders. They are perceived as more violent and dangerous and in turn experience high levels of anticipated discrimination. Thus, individuals who do suffer from severe mental illness do not seek the help they need. The article further discusses the potential discrimination of specific subpopulations. Overall, mental health is a serious issue that needs to be discussed, observed, and accepted more readily.

References:

Henderson, C., Evans-Lacko, S., & Thornicroft, G. (2013). Mental Illness Stigma, Help Seeking, and Public Health Programs. Am J Public House,103(5). doi:10.2105/AJPH.2012.301056

This months article was very intriguing as mental health is a very relevant and important topic in todays society. The evidence on whether large-scale anti-stigma campaigns could contribute to increased levels of help-seeking in individuals suffering from mental illness was examined in this month's report. Lack of information about the signs of mental disorders, ignorance about how to get care, and discrimination are all factors that raise the probability of treatment avoidance. Furthermore, it explores the evidence that public health responses to stigma and discrimination can increase access to mental health services and highlights the roles that stigma and discrimination play in contributing to the treatment gap. This is due to contributing factors that raise the probability of treatment evasion, such as a lack of understanding of the characteristics of mental disorders, uncertainty of how to obtain treatment, racism towards people with mental illnesses, and the expectation of discrimination against people diagnosed with mental illness. The results of this study indicated that the existence of strong positive attitudes could be more critical than the absence of negative attitudes in terms of seeking and disclosing support. Furthermore, if social media strategies are seen to be successful in enhancing awareness and positive attitudes, young people will seek support more frequently. This research, in my opinion, only looked at the beginning of the help-seeking process; however, a study of the relationship between anti-stigma services and help-seeking should look at both the beginning and the end of the process. In conclusion, this study concluded that, even if more large-scale anti-stigma programmes were implemented, public awareness, perceptions, and behaviours would need to change in order to reduce the likelihood of negative encounters with health professionals; otherwise, people would be discouraged from seeking more support.

This month’s article was a very relevant issue regarding mental illness that many people in today’s society are struggling with and how the stigma is a major contributor to why those do not seek help. Henderson, Evans-Lacko and Thornicroft (2013) wanted to find whether or not anti-stigma campaigns will help increase the chances of those who are suffering from a mental illness seeking help. In the article, it is mentioned that discrimination and the stigma has contributed to the treatment gap. It was also stated that treatment avoidance or delay in care occurred due to the increase in lack of knowledge, ignorance of how to access treatment, prejudice against individuals that have a mental illness as well as discrimination against those who were diagnosed with a mental illness (Henderson, et al., 2013). It was found that there have been negative experiences regarding mental health professionals as they have been considered to be discriminatory and discrimination experienced of others due to having a mental illness (Henderson, et al., 2013). This would affect those from seeking treatment and those who would want it. It is explained that initial help seeking will increase as public knowledge increases, improvement in attitudes as well as behaviours. It will help decrease the negative experience with health professionals when they discourage others to find further help or treatment with their mental illness. (Henderson, et al., 2013).

Mental health is an important discussion to me. I know many people who struggle with their mental health and who have a mental illness. I believe it is important to raise awareness and be able to express your feelings within a safe environment, without being discriminated against. Therefore, I believe with more education, large-scale anti-stigma campaigns, public knowledge and creating conversations regarding mental health and illnesses, we will be able to decrease the stigma of mental illness as well as discrimination against those who want to seek help. This will be able to create a more positive environment. However, I agree with beau1800, there is still a lot of work to be done.

References:

Henderson, C., Evans-Lacko, S., & Thornicroft, G. (2013). Mental illness stigma, help seeking, and public health programs. American journal of public health, 103(5), 777–780. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2012.301056

This month’s article was a very relevant issue regarding mental illness that many people in today’s society are struggling with and how the stigma is a major contributor to why those do not seek help. Henderson, Evans-Lacko and Thornicroft (2013) wanted to find whether or not anti-stigma campaigns will help increase the chances of those who are suffering from a mental illness seeking help. In the article, it is mentioned that discrimination and the stigma has contributed to the treatment gap. It was also stated that treatment avoidance or delay in care occurred due to the increase in lack of knowledge, ignorance of how to access treatment, prejudice against individuals that have a mental illness as well as discrimination against those who were diagnosed with a mental illness (Henderson, et al., 2013). It was found that there have been negative experiences regarding mental health professionals as they have been considered to be discriminatory and discrimination experienced of others due to having a mental illness (Henderson, et al., 2013). This would affect those from seeking treatment and those who would want it. It is explained that initial help seeking will increase as public knowledge increases, improvement in attitudes as well as behaviours. It will help decrease the negative experience with health professionals when they discourage others to find further help or treatment with their mental illness. (Henderson, et al., 2013).

Mental health is an important discussion to me. I know many people who struggle with their mental health and who have a mental illness. I believe it is important to raise awareness and be able to express your feelings within a safe environment, without being discriminated against. Therefore, I believe with more education, large-scale anti-stigma campaigns, public knowledge and creating conversations regarding mental health and illnesses, we will be able to decrease the stigma of mental illness as well as discrimination against those who want to seek help. This will be able to create a more positive environment. However, I agree with beau1800, there is still a lot of work to be done.

References:

Henderson, C., Evans-Lacko, S., & Thornicroft, G. (2013). Mental illness stigma, help seeking, and public health programs. American journal of public health, 103(5), 777–780. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2012.301056

This month's article was a very interesting read! When it comes to mental health, I am interested to learn more and find ways on how to help the community. The concept of mental health is very personal to me as I have observed many of my friends and family go through things but were never able to express how they felt without feeling like they do not belong or fit in with other people. The stigma that individuals suffering from mental health are evident as a barrier to accessing or seeking help for mental health support and programs. I completely agree with the suggestion this article makes on implementing more education and increasing awareness of the stigma and discrimination that surrounds the idea of mental health. I am also in hopes that the programs suggested in the article such as the one called "Time to Change" can reduce unfair treatment and discrimination that is done by individuals that look down upon mental health and discriminatory health care professionals!

I loved reading this weeks article as I feel it is very relevant to the problems we face day in and day out in our society. Mental Illness and the stigma around it has been a great problem for as long as i'm sure all of us can remember. This article outlines that with an increase in knowledge and education around mental illness, there is an increased chance of help-seeking for mentally ill people. I found the part about discrimination, stigma, and mental health care access to be a critical part of this article because these are large problems surrounding mental illness. Specifically with psychotic disorders, the article outlined how people suffering with disorders like these can be unpredictable and violent. This belief and many other stigmas further prove that the public at large needs much more education surrounding this subject if we want any sort of positive change.

I loved reading this weeks article as I feel it is very relevant to the problems we face day in and day out in our society. Mental Illness and the stigma around it has been a great problem for as long as i'm sure all of us can remember. This article outlines that with an increase in knowledge and education around mental illness, there is an increased chance of help-seeking for mentally ill people. I found the part about discrimination, stigma, and mental health care access to be a critical part of this article because these are large problems surrounding mental illness. Specifically with psychotic disorders, the article outlined how people suffering with disorders like these can be unpredictable and violent. This belief and many other stigmas further prove that the public at large needs much more education surrounding this subject if we want any sort of positive change.

This month’s article was intriguing as it analyzed the evidence on whether large-scale anti-stigma campaigns could lead to increased levels of help-seeking in individuals suffering from mental illness. The main factors that increase the likelihood of treatment avoidance include lack of knowledge to identify features of mental illnesses, ignorance about how to gain access to treatment, prejudice against people who have mental illness and expectation of discrimination against people diagnosed with mental illness[2] Moreover, this article highlights the roles that stigma and discrimination play in contributing to the treatment gap and assess the evidence that public health approaches to stigma and discrimination can easier access to mental health care[2,3] Globally, there has been rapid increase in depression & anxiety in majority 70% of young people and adults; that often fail to receive any mental health treatment from the health care staff. This is impart due to the contributing factors that increase the likelihood of treatment avoidance such as lack of knowledge to identify features of mental illnesses, ignorance about how to gain access to treatment, prejudice against people who have mental illness and expectation of discrimination against people diagnosed with mental illness. The findings of this study suggested that the presence of strong positive attitudes might be more relevant to help seeking and disclosure than the absence of negative attitudes[2] Furthermore, if social marketing campaigns are proven effective at improving knowledge and positive attitudes they would result in increased help-seeking behaviors in young adults.[2] I think this study explored initial help seeking part; however, the examination of the relationship between anti-stigma programs and help-seeking should investigate initial and subsequent actions. Additional factors that may contribute to deter young adults from seeking treatment include negative experiences with mental health professionals that are perceived to be discriminatory and discrimination experienced at the hands of others because of having a mental illness. In closing, this study extrapolated that even with establishing more large-scale anti-stigma campaigns; public knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors must improve to achieve reduction in the risk of negative experiences with health professionals; otherwise it would continue to deter people from seeking further help.

References:

1. Corrigan PW, Watson AC, Warpinski AC, Gracia G. Stigmatizing attitudes about mental illness and allocation of resources to mental health services. Community Ment Health J. 2004;40(4):297–307

2. Henderson, C., Evans-Lacko, S., & Thornicroft, G. (2013). Mental illness stigma, help seeking, and public health programs. American journal of public health, 103(5), 777–780. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2012.301056

3. Patel V, Koschorke M, Prince M. Closing the Treatment Gap for Mental Disorders. Routledge Handbook of Global Public Health. London, UK: Taylor & Francis; 2011:385–393

4. Thornicroft G. Physical health disparities and mental illness: the scandal of premature mortality. Br J Psychiatry. 2011;199(6):441–442

5. Thornicroft G. Most people with mental illness are not treated. Lancet. 2007;370(9590):807–808