Case 17- SAP Flashcards
The major social and cultural barriers to health
• Stigma and discrimination • Violence • Marginalisation • Law and policies • Poverty and inequality Effect of these barriers- negative psychological impact, social isolation, prevents the patient from coming in for diagnosis and treatment
Cultural attitudes to condom use
• People from Central and East Africa believe that if the condom breaks it can lead to infection, sterility and death
• Uganda- some women view condoms as bad for reproductive health
• South Africa- believe that condoms hold bodily fluid that may be used by sorcerers
• Cultural patterns of masculinity identity.
Cultural patterns leads to negative HIV/AIDS outcomes.
Stigma
When an adverse social judgement is made about a person or a group which leads to rejection, blame, social exclusion or devaluation
What is stigma about
An enduring feature of identiyt i.e. race, ethnicity and sexual preference
Health related stigma
Social judgement which is based on an enduring features of identity conferred by a health problem or health related condition i.e. HIV, epilepsy or mental health
Stigma and deviance
People are stigmatised if they follow deviant activity instead of the social norms, how stigma and deviance are defined varies across cultures. Stigma is not an innate attribute but arises through social interaction
Examples of stigmatised health issues
Schitzophrenia, bipolar, epilepsy, autism, diabetes, HIV
Labelling theory
Labels create social outsiders, labels are created for people outside the social norm
Euphemism treadmill
Whatever term is used is likely to develop stigma eventually
Even when we stop using an originally offensive term, the replacement term will also pick up negative connotations
The metaphors of AIDs
The metaphors and myths surrounding AIDs adds to the suffering
• AIDS as a plague
• AIDS as an invisible contagion
• AIDS as moral punishment
• AIDS as an invader
• AIDS as war
• AIDS as a primitive or pre-social force or entity
Modes of adaption to illness
- The pragmatic type- downplay their illness
- The secret type- use tactics to conceal their disease, which they regarded as stigmatizing
- The ‘quasi-liberated type’ publicly proclaiming their disease in order to educate others
- Unadjusted- overwhelmed by their condition
Types of enacted stigma
Overt discrimination due to their social unacceptability
• Subjected to degrading or insulting language
• Labels such as cheap, bad, greedy, shameless, dirty
• Spat on laughed at
• Harassment and abuse from the police
Types of felt stigma
Denotes both a sense of shame and a fear of encountering enacted stigma
• Exhibiting a degree of shame in their profession/illness
• Angry and hurt by negative community responses
• Fear of encountering enacted stigma
• Concealing activity from friends and family
Felt normative stigma
A subjective awareness of stigma which motivates individuals to take actions to avoid enacted stigma
What does internalised stigma result in
Results in prejudice and enacted stigma, subjects of stigma accept discredited status
Early generations of HIV patients
- Many more side effects
- Memories of friends and partners who had died
- Coped by getting involved in HIV activism (some still are)