Reassessing mental illness stigma in mental health care: Competing stigmas and risk containment

Kerry M. Dobransky

Social Science & Medicine, 2020, vol. 249, issue C

Abstract: Research on mental illness stigma tends to focus on the most severe diagnoses and settings, and it pays insufficient attention to how the treatment process itself relates to stigma. This study, calling on 28 interviews with providers treating a wide range of mental problems in varied settings, addresses these issues. Findings reveal that stigma is associated with treatment across settings and severity, although dynamics vary based on the intensity of setting. Mental illness stigma competes with other stigmas in presenting for treatment. Once in treatment, mental health care acts as a stigma-mitigating “stamp” of risk containment for other societal systems and institutions, signifying that risks posed by clients' problems are being officially contained.

Keywords: Mental illness; Stigma; Structural stigma; Mental health care; Treatment; Labeling; Criminal justice; Risk (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953620300800
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:socmed:v:249:y:2020:i:c:s0277953620300800

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/supportfaq.cws_home/regional
http://www.elsevier. ... _01_ooc_1&version=01

DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2020.112861

Access Statistics for this article

Social Science & Medicine is currently edited by Ichiro (I.) Kawachi and S.V. (S.V.) Subramanian

More articles in Social Science & Medicine from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu (repec@elsevier.com).