Stigma in Mental Health at the Macro and Micro Levels: Implications for Mental Health Consumers and Professionals

Abstract

Despite increasing mental health promotion and advocacy, stigma persists and poses a significant threat to the healthy functioning at the macro and micro-sociological levels. Stigma is gradually evolving with the incorporation of broader social contexts at the micro and macro levels in which individuals, institutions and larger cultural constructs shape and influence the perception of what is different and therefore stigmatized. This theoretical paper based on literature underscores how mental health stigma discourages individuals from getting proper mental health treatment. The interface of mental illness, stigma, and mental health treatment has ethical and potentially moral implications.

Males and Mental Health Stigma

“…Self-stigma is the internalization of social stigma, in that the person with the mental illness feels shame about his or her symptoms. Professional stigma assumes that health professionals transfer and reinforce stigmatization of their clients, while cultural stigma comprises the various ways that individual cultures interpret mental illness (Cerully et al, 2018; Hack et al, 2020; Holder et al, 2019). I highlighted these terms so that we can conceptualize the various lenses in which stigma exist.…”

Structural determinants of stigma across health and social conditions: a rapid review and conceptual framework to guide future research and intervention

“…The reviewed literature explored many stigmatized experiences, identities, behaviours and health conditions (Table 2). Comprehensively, these were: individuals with mental health and substance use disorders; [26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39] individuals living with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) 26,[40][41][42][43][44][45][46] or other sexually transmitted or blood-borne infections (STBBI), 47 tuberculosis (TB), 48,49 diabetes, 50 epilepsy, 51 chronic pain 52,53 or cancer-particularly types whose etiology may be attributable to patients' behaviours; 54 vulnerable subpopulations such as migrants and racialized communities; 55,56 lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and other (LGBTQ+) populations; 57,58 individuals experiencing poverty; 59 sex workers; 60 single mothers; 61 individuals labelled as obese or fat; 46,62 biological mothers of children diagnosed with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder; 63 and individuals who smoke. 64 Some authors highlighted that, although their research may have focussed on stigma pertaining to a specific condition or identity, individuals can experience multiple sources of stigma due to the intersection of multiple complex identities and life experiences.…”

“…68 Eighteen works referenced terms that fell under this domain. [29][30][31][32]34,37,38,40,43,46,[50][51][52][53]55,58,68,72 Pedagogical factors were referenced in three conceptual frameworks. 32,50,58 These works described how both the form and the content of educational material can influence the stigma process.…”

Perceived Importance of Public Health Risks in Greece: A Nationwide Survey of the Adult Population

“…Austerity measures, introduced in Greece in 2011, increased the number of suicides in both males and females [52], showing that mental health is a more important public health risk than is perceived by the public. As mental health disorders are still socially stigmatized, patients are less likely to acknowledge the problem and seek care, leading to diagnostic underestimation [53], which in turn may possibly explain the current findings of a relatively low consideration of it as a major public health threat.…”