Mental Illness and Stigma - Term Paper Example

Running Header: mental illness and stigma Your name: Course name: Professors’ name: Date Introduction Stigma among the mentally ill persons has been on the rise not only in Australia but all over the world. Mental illness varies but they are generally related to the patient’s fundamental behavior and decision making regarding basic issues of life. People affected by mental illness are normally not in a position to carry out their respective duties as required because of the fluctuation in their mental status. Discrimination and prejudice of people with mental issues is not new, despite the actions of stakeholders on the need to stop the stigma, the general perception derails in the sense that the misconceptions upheld by groups of people supports the fear and need to avoid mentally ill persons on the basis of their unpredictability. This analysis focuses on the causes as well as the effects of stigma on people with mental problems. Definition of key terms Mental illness- A disease or state that impairs normal functioning of the brain Prejudice- Bias resulting in poor objective consideration of an issue Stigam- A mark of disgrace that results in segregation. Sources and effects of stigma for people with mental problems The main source of stigma in people with mental illness is the immediate family or society and the general public. This can be attributed to the poor understanding of this mental condition and what can be constructively done in order to improve the lives of the patients affected by this condition. The main assumption about people with mental illness is their violent aspect and the fact that these people cannot constructively contribute to the society. The other main source of stigma is the people affected by this status; this can be viewed as a result of the impact of the public stigma about their mental status. As noted by Johnstone (2011, p.184) stigma naturally perpetuates ignorance, humans are naturally designed to fear what they don’t understand, this is the same case in mental ill people and hence the reason why they are feared. According to Torrey (2011) stigma against mentally ill persons is a major concern, studies have indicated that the perception of seriously mentally ill persons as violence is a major source of stigma. Notably, despite the perception that mentally ill individuals are violent, this is not the case, in fact studies reveal that about 3 % of mentally ill people are violent. More so, Sane Australia (2012) indicates that the media portrays mentally ill people as violent and hence giving them a skewed vantage point, the media is hence a source of the stigma against mentally ill people because it escalates the issue instead of helping to reduce the level of stigma against these people. According to Corrigan & Watson (2002, p. 16) people with mental illness have many challenges ranging from their struggle with the symptoms and limitation of the disease to the prejudice that these people experience as a result of misconceptions about their mental status. As a result, these people are robbed off their chance to live a normal life just like any other person in the society. Some of the impacts of the stigma due to mental status include being deprived of good life such as: safe housing, jobs, adequate health care plan and interaction with other people in the society. Corrigan & Watson (2002, p. 16) agrees to the fact that the current literature despite the efforts made to study the impacts of the disease, research on the stigma in mental illness has not been fully studied, it is only recently that social psychologist and sociologist have commenced their study of mental related illness. According to Corrigan & Watson (2002, p. 16) the impact of the stigma is mainly in two folds, firstly the public reaction to people with mental illness and secondly, the self-stigma which is basically the prejudice which the patients of mental illness turn against themselves. These two folds of the mental illness impacts may be understood in terms of three major components: Prejudice, stereotypes and discrimination. Prejudice is cognitive as well as affective response which eventually leads to discrimination and behavioral reaction. In essence, prejudice leads to anger and hence hostile behavior. The consequences of angry prejudice may result in withholding help or depriving the affected person basic health care supported by the criminal justice system. More so, fear leads to avoidance, this essentially means that people with mental illness are less likely to be hired by employers as they fear the consequences of their presence. Self-stigma in this case may lead to the individual not pursuing their own life opportunities (Sartorius & Schulze 2005 p.25). As further explained by Corrigan & Watson (2002, p. 16) Stereotypes as indicated by psychologist are the social knowledge gained from members of a social group. Basically stereotypes are considered “social” as they represent the collective agreed upon notion of a society or a group of people in that matter. They are also considered efficient because of the quick impression that individuals easily generate. Discrimination as another component of the impact may be understood by considering the public opinion and how people with mental illness are treated. Discrimination leads to violation of basic human rights, for instance, people with schizophrenia are forced into treatment, more so these people are openly segregated from the rest of the population; this is mainly common in institutions. When patients of mental illness are very sick, they are incomprehensible, this worsens the public perception and most people will fear them and hence leading to segregation. According to Government of Western Australia Mental Health Commission (2010) in every 1 out of 4 depressed people, this was a sign of personal weakness and employers would not employ such a person. 1 out of 5 indicated that they would not reveal their status if they found out that they had mental illness. More so 2 out of 3 people have the perception that people with schizophrenia were unpredictable and a quarter of these people felt that they were actually dangerous. Sane Australia (2012) gives opportunities individuals who have experienced stigma as a result of their mental health status. Kylie’s story reveals that once she was diagnosed with schizophrenia, the media gave her a disadvantage view point that her health situation was a license to violent behavior. Kylie story is touching in many ways; she became ill at her most stressful period in her life. She experienced a relationship breakdown followed by the death of her mother at the time she was pregnant with her second borne daughter. In a period of six months, Kylie was diagnosed with schizophrenia. Her health status resulted in job loss and she struggled to maintain the normal life of her children. She lived in sub-standard housing always experiencing financial constrain while battling with the effects of the illness. As she quotes “her ill-fitting curtains exposed my poverty like a banner” she says “but my illness could not allow me to care”. Amazingly, no child protection issues surfaced as a result of Kylie’s health condition. Her daughter Emma Leigh was disadvantaged in her school as she was bullied and her teacher was unsympathetic. Kylie resorted to a Catholic primary school which offered better care to both of her children. The children progressed well and even developed exceedingly extraordinary qualities of high level concern for others. Kylie on the other hand quit smoking as a result of her constant coughing and eventually joined a rehabilitation centre and with the support of SANE Australia’s campaign, Kylie was able to afford nicotine patches which later became available on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme in 2011. The two Kylie’s daughters Emma-Leigh and Madeline were supportive and they helped their mother in her daily chores. In fact, the children developed a supportive culture that they adopted doing all the household tasks in the house and supported their mother in all ways possible, as Kylie narrates, if the children made noise while playing, she would easily hallucinate. The two daughters countered this by sitting beside her bed and sing to drown the hallucinations (Sane Australia 2012). Summary of the main findings and conclusion The key finding in this study is the fact that people have misconceptions about persons with mental illness and they contribute significantly to the evident discrimination of these individuals (Elder, Evans,& Nizette 2012, p.91). The media is another source of stigma as it generally considers people with mental problems violent. This is the case in the case consideration of Kylie who despite her schizophrenia, she managed to raise her children without intervention from authorities (Sane Australia, 2012). Mentally ill persons as a result of the negative public view develop self-stigma and cut off from the rest of the public and hence not fully participating in their own career building as well as other aspects of life. The impact of stigma varies from loss of jobs, reluctance of employers to employ affected persons, public misconceptions and avoidance, prejudice and segregation from the society. In conclusion, persons with mental illness have been negatively portrayed by the media, their access to basic human services including decision making has been greatly hindered by their health status, and this is a major concern. Stakeholders and other supportive groups have developed strategies of arresting this situation by speaking out on the need to integrate these people back to the society and give them the necessary need for them to live a normal life again. References Corrigan, WP &  Watson, AC 2002, Understanding the impact of stigma on people with mental illness. World Psychiatry. Vol.1, no.1, pp. 16–20. Elder, R, Evans, K & Nizette, D 2012, Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing, Elsevier Australia, Sydney. PP. 90-91. Government of western Australia Mental Health Commission 2010, What is stigma? Mental health. Retrieved from http://www.mentalhealth.wa.gov.au/mental_illness_and_health/mh_stigma.aspx Johnstone, MJ 2011, Bioethics: A Nursing Perspective, Elsevier Health Sciences, Sydney.PP. 180-190. Sane Australia 2012, Taking action to reduce stigma in the media, Stigmawatch, Retrieved from http://www.sane.org/stigmawatch Sartorius, N & Schulze, H 2005, Reducing the Stigma of Mental Illness: A Report from a Global Association, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. PP. 26-35. Torrey, F 2011, Stigma and Violence: Isn’t It Time to Connect the Dots? Schizophrenia Bulletin. Retrieved from http://mentalillnesspolicy.org/consequences/stigma.html Read More