Abstract
Introduction: It is common knowledge that individuals with mental illness face many negative consequences of stigmatization. They are also super sensitive to the attitudes of health professionals. This study aims to investigate the stigmatizing attitudes and language usage of mental health professionals and to compare them with non-mental health professionals. Material and Methods: A total of 722 healthcare professionals were asked to complete the sociodemographic characteristics data form, the questionnaire including the list of stigmatizing words for mental illnesses, and the Attitudes Towards Mentally Ills Scale (ATMIS). Results: Research shows that mental health professionals have less stigmatizing attitudes when compared to other healthcare professionals (p = .000). However, it is determined that there is no difference in terms of the number of stigmatizing words used by both groups, and the most frequently used psychiatric diagnostic expressions with stigmatizing purposes are personality disorders. The number of stigmatizing words used by physicians is more than nurses (p = .000). Mental healthcare professionals have more positive attitudes in both short-term and the long term relationship scale scores. Both groups show that the mean score is lower in long-term than in short-term relationships. Conclusion: Working in the mental health field does not lead to a positive change in terms of language use in stigmatizing purposes and reducing stigmatizing attitudes in a long-term relationship with individuals with mental illness. It is recommended to increase the awareness of physicians about the use of stigmatizing language.
Highlights
It is common knowledge that individuals with mental illness face many negative consequences of stigmatization
Working in the mental health field does not lead to a positive change in terms of language use in stigmatizing purposes and reducing stigmatizing attitudes in a long-term relationship with individuals with mental illness
The data of the participants were divided into two groups as mental healthcare professionals (MHCPs) and other fields’ healthcare professionals (OHCPs)
Summary
It is common knowledge that individuals with mental illness face many negative consequences of stigmatization. Stigmatizing attitudes of society prevent the stigmatized people from seeking treatment; it can lead to consequences such as discrimination, loneliness, stress, violence, and suicide [3, 4]. Researches have reported that healthcare professionals may share some social prejudices against mental illnesses [6, 7], which may impair the quality of care [6,7,8,9,10,11] Because of their stigmatizing attitudes, general medical conditions accompanying mental illness are diagnosed later and poorly treated. This can lead to a shorter life expectancy for these individuals even when suicide and accidents are excluded [12, 13]
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