Mental Health Month 2022 Week 3

Stephanie Weatherly, DNP, PMH RN-BC, FACHE

Chief Clinical Officer

May 16, 2022

If you were diagnosed with hypertension (high blood pressure) today, you would most likely seek treatment for your health condition. However, according to the American Psychiatric Association, over half of all people experiencing mental illness do not seek or receive help for their condition. Why? Persons experiencing mental health crises fear judgment, retaliation, and discrimination if they seek help and become labeled as suffering from a mental health concern. Mental Health Month, and the work we do every day of the year, is so critically important in reducing stigma.

Research has shown that stigma reduction is a complementary modality to medication management and therapies for people struggling with a mental illness. According to the Lancet, people experiencing mental illness often describe the shame of having a mental illness, the ostracism from society, and being placed into a category of people who are seen as less than others is much worse than the mental illness itself.

This graphic shows how stigma intersects with stereotypes, prejudices, and discrimination (Corrigan, Pw, Druss, BG, Perlick, DA. The Impact of Mental Illness Stigma on Seeking and Participating in Mental Health Care. Psychological Science in The Public Interest. 2014, 15(2);37-70.):

According to the American Psychiatric Association, there can be many harmful effects on persons with mental illness because of stigma:

• Reduced hope
• Lower self-esteem
• Increased psychiatric symptoms
• Difficulties with social relationships
• Reduced likelihood of staying with treatment
• More difficulties at work
• Reluctance to seek help or treatment and less likely to stay with treatment
• Social isolation
• Lack of understanding by family, friends, coworkers, or others
• Fewer opportunities for work, school, or social activities or trouble finding housing
• Bullying, physical violence, or harassment
• Health insurance that doesn't adequately cover your mental illness treatment
• The belief that you'll never succeed at certain challenges or that you can't improve your situation

How can we combat stigma? According to NAMI, these actions can help with reducing stigma:

• Talk openly about mental health, such as sharing on social media.
• Educate yourself and others – respond to misperceptions or negative comments by sharing facts and experiences.
• Be conscious of language – remind people that words matter.
• Encourage equality between physical and mental illness – draw comparisons to how they would treat someone with cancer or diabetes.
• Show compassion for those with mental illness.
• Be honest about treatment – normalize mental health treatment, just like other health care treatments.
• Let the media know when they are using stigmatizing language to present stories of mental illness in a stigmatizing way.
• Choose empowerment over shame - "I fight stigma by choosing to live an empowered life. That means owning my life and my story and refusing to allow others to dictate how I view myself or how I feel about myself." – Val Fletcher, responding on Facebook to the question, How do you fight stigma?

Thank you for all you are doing to reduce stigma and increase access and treatment for those experiencing a mental health crisis. Your work is meaningful, and we are making a difference!