Stigma and discrimination towards people with schizophrenia and their family members

Abstract

Patients and relatives describe a great variety of stigma and discrimination experiences in all areas of life, including health care. Isolation and avoidance are common reactions to those experiences. Publicizing these stigma and discrimination experiences could help to reduce stigmatizing attitudes in society and result in healthier reactions from patients, favoring a better course of the illness.

Tangible Needs and External Stressors Faced by Chinese American Families with a Member Having Schizophrenia

“…Although an increasing number of qualitative studies have explored the stresses experienced by families with a member living with serious mental illness (SMI) (for example, Corsentino, Molinari, Gum, Roscoe, & Mills, 2008;González-Torres, Oraa, Arístegui, Fernández-Rivas, & Guimon, 2007), few have included Asian Americans. Studies also tended to address families' internal stressors ( Zegwaard et al, 2011) while paying little attention to their tangible needs and external stressors.…”

The challenge of reducing smoking in people with serious mental illness

“…61,75 Often, smokers with psychotic illnesses such as schizophrenia experience social isolation and stigma. 128 This social isolation can also contribute to the challenges of recruiting participants with schizophrenia for smoking cessation trials from this population, thus potentially adversely affecting the power and external validity of these studies. 129 We require innovative approaches for trial recruitment and improved access of smokers with schizophrenia to cessation methods that are effective in the general population.130 Partnering with mental health consumer groups and non-government organisations that provide services to people with schizophrenia within the community can be a promising way to engage with this population group.…”

Development and validation of the Self-Stigma Questionnaire (SSQ) for people with schizophrenia and its relation to social functioning

“…Some studies have used qualitative techniques in order to better explore the self-stigma of people with mental disorders [6][7][8]. Loss of social roles, social discrimination, and public images of mental illness (dangerous) were the most important dimensions found in all these studies.…”