stigmas attached to mental health??

Karen09

hi all,

Im doing a thesis at the moment on whether or not people believe that there is a stigma attached to those who suffer from mental health illnesses. I'd be interested to hear what you all think of this. When i say mental health illnesses, i mean from eating disorders to schizophrenia, do you think people/ you would treat someone differently if you learned that they had such medical issues??

JuliusCaesar

didn't Mental Health Ireland do a survey on this a few years ago? or something similar? You might get some info there.

LilMrsDahamsta

I think the Mental Health Commission did something on service users views too, but the focus was on attitudes, etc within the services. Schizophrenia Ireland definitely did a survey too a couple of years ago. Might also be worth checking with the Irish Advocacy network (though they don't publish much) and the new National Service Users Executive.

JuliusCaesar

Also the Royal College of Psychiatrists ran a destigmatisation campaign a few years ago & should have a good bit of info

sambuka41

I work in the social care field and i would definetly say that there is still a stigma attached to mental health. I think its a lack of understanding. people dont know what it is and so they usually steer clear. My background is in psychology and I find i can come up against a block even when i am trying to explain them. 5

eth0_

I don't think I behave differently around people if they are mentally ill...maybe if they are heavily medicated they can be a bit disconcerting to be around, a bit more so than when they are actually "ill"!

But I can understand how the general public have a fear of mental illness - if you hadn't studied psychology you would think, from press coverage, that all schizoprenics are knife wielding maniacs, for instance.