Stigma in Mental Health Care

Abstract

Received November 28, 2007; accepted December 12, 2007. Drs. Tsao, Tummala, and Roberts are affiliated with the Departments of Psychiatry and Behavioral Health at the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee, Wis. Address correspondence to Carol I. Ping Tsao, M.D., Psychiatry and Behavioral Health, Medical College of Wisconsin, 5000 W. National Ave, Milwaukee, WI 53295; ctsao@mcw.edu (e-mail). Copyright 2008 Academic Psychiatry Stigma marks someone as different from others, leading to devaluation of that person. A social construction, stigma occurs within relationships. In his classic 1963 description, Goffman (1) defines stigma as “an attribute that is deeply discrediting,” where a person is diminished “from a whole and usual person to a tainted, discounted one.” Shifting from a focus on individual traits, subsequent formulations have identified certain psychosocial processes that lead to stigmatization. These include labeling, stereotyping, separating, status loss, and discrimination in a context of power imbalance (2). Stigma affects people adversely. Academic achievement is lower for members of stigmatized groups as compared with nonstigmatized groups, and members of stigmatized groups are at greater risk for both mental and physical diseases (3). Patients with mental illnesses are stigmatized and suffer adverse consequences such as increased social isolation, limited life chances, and decreased access to treatment (4– 6). In addition to poorer social functioning as assessed by housing and employment status (7), those with the stigma of mental illness also encounter a significant barrier to obtaining general medical care (8) and to recovery from mental illness (9). As stated by Chin and Balon (10), “The added burden that stigma imposes on the struggle to recovery can alter behavior, generate anxiety, and ultimately cause isolation from the mainstream culture.” In this issue, several manuscripts make a case for increasing familial involvement in the care of patients with mental illnesses with the aims of improving social and health outcomes for patients and providing support to family members. Suggestions range from managing confidentiality while increasing family engagement in the treatment of distressed adolescents (11) to optimizing the benefits of family money management (12) to inclusion of family across the spectrum of psychiatric clinical care (13) to more formalized reintegration of family therapy training in psychiatry residency programs (14) to making afterdeath calls to family members (15). Stigma also affects family members of persons with mental illness. Referred to as “courtesy” (1) or “associative” (16) stigma, its psychological impact can be quite deleterious. In a Swedish study, 18% of relatives of patients with severe mental illness reported that the patient would be better off dead (17). This figure increased to 40% in relatives who felt that the patient’s mental illness caused mental health problems in themselves (17). In this issue, two articles report literature reviews on stigma of families with mental illness (18) and stigma associated with suicide (19). In the first article (18), parental stigmatization of children with mental illnesses and the stigmatization of children with parents who have mental illnesses are explored. Parents are often blamed for causing mental illness in their children through poor parenting. Children are often perceived as being somehow tainted by their parents’ mental illness. In the second article (19), three survivors of suicide report their experiences and make suggestions to further diminish stigma associated with suicide. Survivors of suicide, as compared with other bereaved persons, experience more guilt and less social support. Candid disclosure about the decedent’s struggle with mental illness and suicide being the cause of death, having someone to talk with openly about the loss, and/or participation in a suicide support group can provide significant comfort to familial survivors of suicide and may go some distance in decreasing stigma. As a group, mental health professionals are no less susceptible to stigmatizing beliefs than the general population (20–22). And medical education has only a very limited benefit with regard to reducing stigmatizing beliefs (23). In a study of resident physicians from an array of medical