Ending The Stigma!

Mental illness is one of the most unrecognized and unreported health problems in the United States. Although it is one of the most pervasive and disabling illnesses, it is not viewed as a real illness, such as cancer, heart disease, or diabetes. As a result stigma becomes one of the major barriers to accessing mental health services. Stigma also causes discrimination in many other aspects of a person’s life, including the work place, academia, the local community, and even relationships with family and friends, whose support is so crucial to recovery. For many, the stigma is worse than the illness itself!
The most devastating result of all is when stigma has a damaging effect on a person’s recovery and the ability and will needed to find appropriate treatment, access to critical services, and support from health care providers and insurers. The Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance (DBSA) believes governments and others must take the following steps to help end the stigma and discrimination surrounding mental illnesses:

Federal officials should provide leadership and resources to decrease the stigma against mental illness that prevents people from acknowledging their illness and seeking treatment.

Federal, state, and local governments must provide needed resources for ongoing, public awareness programs to communicate that mental illnesses are real, medical, and treatable illnesses.

Governments, media, consumers, and advocacy organizations must educate the public that mental heath is integral to overall health and that with appropriate treatment, consumers can recover and live full and productive lives.

Federal and state governments must provide funding for additional and improved community based mental health services for families facing the devastating decision of custody relinquishment of a seriously-ill child in order to receive necessary treatment.

Federal and state governments must provide the means for local advocacy organizations to work with law enforcement and criminal justice systems to meet the need for better assessment, counseling services, and training that prevent incarceration and post recidivism of persons living with a mental illness.

Mental health consumers must always be included in the development, implementation, and evaluation of all federal, state, community-based, and private sector programs to ensure accuracy and efficacy in addressing mental illness.

DBSA believes congressional committees and relevant federal government agencies must take a proactive role in funding and working with peer-based, mental health advocacy organizations to alleviate the stigma surrounding mental illness. Elected officials on the federal, state, and local levels — who have lived with mental illness personally or through the lives of their families — should be encouraged to share their experiences with the public. Such outreach should be aimed at educating and informing the general public that mental illnesses are no different than physical illnesses and can be treated effectively, with recovery an ultimate and achievable goal