California's historic effort to reduce the stigma of mental illness: The Mental Health Services Act

W. Clark, S.N. Welch, S.H. Berry, A.M. Collentine, R. Collins, D. Lebron and A.L. Shearer

American Journal of Public Health, 2013, vol. 103, issue 5, 786-794

Abstract: In a historic effort to reduce the stigma of mental illness, California voters approved the Mental Health Services Act in 2004. The law funds a comprehensive statewide prevention initiative that places stigma and discrimination reduction at its center, with 25 projects providing interventions at the institutional, societal, and individual levels. Stakeholders selected specific strategies from the research-based California Strategic Plan on Reducing Stigma and Discrimination. Strategies range from social marketing to increase public knowledge to capacity building at the local level, including training that emphasizes participation by consumers of mental health services and cultural competence. Collectively, these strategies aim to foster permanent change in the public perception of mental illness and in the individual experience of stigma. We examined the context, planning, programming, and evaluation of this effort.

Keywords: article; attitude to health; capacity building; consumer; cultural competence; health care quality; health promotion; human; legal aspect; mental disease; mental health service; mental patient; methodology; program development; psychological aspect; social justice; social marketing; social stigma; standard; suicide; United States, Attitude to Health; California; Capacity Building; Consumer Participation; Cultural Competency; Health Promotion; Humans; Mental Disorders; Mental Health Services; Mentally Ill Persons; Program Development; Program Evaluation; Social Justice; Social Marketing; Social Stigma; Suicide (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:aph:ajpbhl:10.2105/ajph.2013.301225_1

DOI: 10.2105/AJPH.2013.301225

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