Stigma and Its Effects on Mental Health

00:00 We talked about stigma before briefly in a previous segment.

00:10 Now, I want to talk about the dangers of stigma especially in healthcare.

00:14 We mentioned the word marginalization and also discrimination so many times with people who experienced stigma or who are placed in the stigmatized groups really experience it to a higher degree sometimes than other people in other situations.

00:31 So, stigma can be based on lots of different things.

00:34 It's very common in people who have mental health diagnoses, is very common in terms of how we think about or place groups in hierarchies or special placement of people in different groups especially people from underrepresented or people from misunderstood populations.

00:55 Some of the dangers or that it can cause substandard healthcare practices because we stigmatize people and that's across the board, but specifically I want to talk about the stigma of mental health.

01:06 Oftentimes, we label people all kinds of different names, crazy.

01:10 One of the things I want to talk about is when I teach students, every human being that has a brain is susceptible to mental health issues and we all have varying degrees of mental health issues, it's just a part of human nature so I do want people to know that.

01:26 When we talk about or tease people, disparage people with mental health diagnosis, we're all just 1 hormone difference or enzyme away from a particular diagnosis and so this is why a lot of people don't seek care which is very dangerous because when you don't, especially if the reason is because of a hormone imbalance, when it's untreated it gets worse.

01:51 The other thing I want to talk about is treatment is beyond just medication.

01:56 So treatment means being respectful, supportive, getting people in therapy or counseling sessions if they needed, but it has to have a holistic approach when we're talking about the stigma of mental illness and thinking beyond when we talk about culture and I'm going to use homeless populations.

02:15 And we're also going to talk about the stigma that happens with mental illnesses with the veteran population which we'll talk about that population in more detail in another segment.

02:26 But think before you speak is one of the things.

02:29 And think about how you may or may not know people who are right in your circle who are adequately being treated for their mental health conditions and you don't know.

02:38 So, don't put people in these categories, label people because it's very dangerous especially in terms of discouraging people from seeking treatment for those medical illnesses.

02:51 And a lot of the homeless people we judge so in a previous segment we talked about how we judge people based on the stereotypes and labels and not knowing a person's background.

03:02 And again, knowing that whether you're homeless or not, whether you have a mental illness or not, we're all human first.

03:10 So in terms of health, health disparities happen as a result of stigma.

03:14 So higher burdens of illness among people with mental illnesses.

03:18 And then access barrier secondary to culture.

03:21 So we want to talk about how, in some cultures, it is taboo to talk about mental illness.

03:27 I've had patients in my real life and practice who are from the black community, for instance, who refuse to be treated for mental illness even knowing that they accept the diagnosis oftentimes.

03:42 The biggest piece of that in terms of us being advocates from a healthcare perspective and even if just talking to people, just talk about it from a space, that is a normal consequence that could happen to anybody.

03:56 One of the 2 ways that I encourage people to seek treatment for mental illness is that it's not taboo to talk about having heart disease.

04:06 It's not taboo to talk about kidney disease, lung disease, all those organs and your brain is an organ just like those.

04:13 So, we respect that of the other organs can get sick or have some form of dysfunction and we're okay with treating that.

04:20 The same is true for your brain.

04:22 And so the other part of that is HIPAA and confidentially and outside of the space no one has to share their mental health diagnosis just in general with people.

04:33 Obviously, we're asked that on specific forms and you do it is your responsibility ethically to share it, but it's only for your safety and the safety of the people who work in that environment.

04:44 Especially it should be not to discriminate or not hire people because of a mental health illness, but how can you support people in terms of an organization who do disclose that they have some type of mental illness that may require them to be off work for a little while.

05:01 That's part of that cultural inclusive process because people with mental illnesses, that's the culture in its own right, in its own right because we think about people probably experienced the same degree of that self-stigma that I mentioned in a previous segment.

05:21 And so you start to think negatively about yourself and your illness so we want to try to discourage that.

05:28 And then health inequalities. So lower standards lead to poor outcomes.

05:33 So if we provide so poor care and also if people come to you for healthcare or within an organization and they disclose that and you treat them like they are less than or you display some type of verbal or non-verbal behaviors that let people know that you're placing them in a lesser category or as abnormal.

05:54 Then people are less likely to trust you for one thing in terms of healthcare.

06:00 They are less likely to continue to access the care.

06:02 And then again that's detrimental to their mental health because it causes more problems and it could also lead to poor physical health because if I'm not taking my medicine then I'm not thinking from a rational place and I may not take care of my hygiene, I may not take my other medicines that are for physically related conditions outside of mental health and then I continue to deteriorate.