ObjectiveThe stigma of mental illness is widespread in the general population and also among healthcare and psychiatric professionals. Yet, research on the self-stigma of the latter is still limited. The purpose of this article was to assess self-stigma and its correlates in mental health professionals with lived experiences of mental crisis and treatment.MethodsIn a cross-sectional exploratory research project, 182 mental health professionals with lived experiences of mental crisis and treatment from 18 psychiatric hospital departments in the German federal states of Berlin and Brandenburg were surveyed on their lived experiences, self-stigma, perceived stigma in the workplace, subjective vulnerability to crises, and meaningfulness of lived experiences. To investigate the relationships between the variables, manifest and latent correlation analyses were calculated.ResultsResults showed low levels of self-stigma and perceived public stigma in the workplace. Self-stigma was significantly and positively associated with workplace stigma and subjective vulnerability to crisis, but not with identification with lived experiences.ConclusionThe relationship between self-stigma, workplace stigma, and vulnerability should be investigated in terms of mutual causality in order to derive possible strategies of reducing self-stigma along with its detrimental effects. Possible reasons for the low levels of self-stigma are discussed in the light of limitations, including processes of self-selection, with highly self-stigmatizing individuals being possibly discouraged from participating. Strategies to enhance sampling quality are briefly discussed.
BackgroundMental health professionals are often affected by mental health problems and disorders. Yet, the effects of these lived experiences on their causal beliefs and health concepts have not been investigated. The current study investigates how professionals’ lived depressive experiences and their perceived vulnerability to mental illness affect their causal beliefs about mental disorders, their general concept of mental health and their specific concepts of depression and burnout.MethodsAn online survey was conducted with 218 mental health professionals from 18 psychiatric clinic departments in the German federal states of Berlin and Brandenburg, investigating their experiences with depression, self-assessed vulnerability, their causal beliefs of mental illness, their general health concept and specific illness concepts of depression and burnout. A path model was calculated to examine the relationships between these variables. Participants with and without lived experience of depression were grouped.ResultsLived experience of depression was indicated by 126 participants. For participants with no experience of depression, perceived vulnerability negatively predicted beliefs in biological causation, which positively predicted higher differentiation between depression and burnout. For participants with previous depression experiences, perceived vulnerability positively predicted beliefs in psychological and social causation. Continuum belief was predicted only in this group by the three variables of causal beliefs. Psychological and social causation was positively associated, while biological causes were negatively associated with continuum beliefs.ConclusionMental health professionals are not external to the clinical situation. Their lived experiences do matter, shaping their beliefs and concepts and, thus, possibly also their actions toward patients.
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