Mental Illness & Stigma Flashcards
Why is mental illness is more challenging than physical illness?
Because we don’t have the right tool, knowledge or language.
Challenges of mental illness on the organization level?
- Loss of profits (absenteeism and presenteeism)
- Risk of damaded repulation
- Difficulty recruiting and retaining talent
- Reduced workplace morale
- Potential legal issues
Challenges of mental illness on the department?
- Workload management
- Risk to employee morale
- Informal office communications.
Challenges of mental illness faced by the individual employee and how stigma has an impact on the individual?
- Musunderstanding and confusion (internal and external)
- Shame and fear of stigma
- Rumours and speculation begin (silence and lack of information)
- Isolation and lack of support
- Difficulty reintegratingto the workplace.
How should be workplace without stigma?
Onset of symptoms –> Realisation of potential mental illness –> disclosure (no stigma and open environment) –> Diagnosis, leave of absence and treatment –> Support from colleagues and managers –> recovery –> Reintegration to the workplace (smoother, faster and without fear)
There is three positions that healthcareworkers have been seen to assume in the challenge toward mental illness:
(1) as ‘stigmatizers’ of those with mental illness; (2) as ‘stigmatized’ by their own association with mental illness; and (3) as advocates, or ‘destigmatizers’
Nurses as ‘stigmatizers’ of those with mental illness are related to:
1) Negative attitudes (fear related to the stereotype of those with mental illness are often seen to be dangerous, unpredictable, violent and bizarre and blame/hostility related to the belief that mental illness is caused by factors such as weakness of morals, character or will, laziness, lack of discipline or self-control.)
2) Fragmentation of client care and devaluation of mental health/psychiatry (the belief that this aspect of care was ‘not their job’., not treated as a priority, “blocking a bed”)
3) Lack of skills and educational base to meet the needs of MH/P clients.
4) Lack of resources/infrastructure to support the provision of safe, competent MH/P care (training security “code white” team availability)
Elements that contribute to the negative attitudes from nurses toward the patient with mental health issues:
-The lack of skills to feel confident and competent manage MH/P clients’ behavioral symptoms (related to their fear)
-Difficulty to distinguish psychiatric behavior symptoms from ill-mannered or uncouth behavior.
-Serious specific gaps in general nurses’ clinical knowledge about suicide.
(Additional education regarding mental illness and mental health care is needed to upgrade their MH/P knowledge bases.)
Supported in the literature as a chief contributor to stigma and negative attitudes from nurses is related to which theory of psychology?
“the attribution theory” whereby the meaning constructed for the condition, and consequently the judgment made of the person with it, are determined by the presumed cause attributed to the affliction. Eg. if conditions are due to experiences or factors beyond one’s control, such as heredity or biology, then more compassion tends to be extended. (Attribution of control of the symptoms/illness directly to the clients’ will and/or character)
What can increase stigma and social distance?
Attributing mental illness solely to biological or inherited determinants because the illness is perceived as fixed and chronic.
Psychiatric nurses’ attitudes:
- Negative attitudes and discriminatory treatment (especially with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) were they are seen as difficult, annoying, manipulative, seeking of attention, and were labeled with such offensive terms as ‘nuisances’, and ‘time-wasters’)
- Pessimistic attitudes towards client prognoses and outcomes
Nurses as ‘the stigmatized’:
- Nurses who have a mental illness (targets for ‘horizontal violence’ or, demeaning, contemptuous and shunning reactions from supervisors and colleagues, prefer to keep it secret with the ‘don’t ask - don’t tell’ attitude based on fears of systematic discrimination and persecution)
- Stigma within the profession against psychiatric nurses and/or psychiatry in general (devaluation within the profession of nursing related to the devaluation of relational practice, and the prizing of technological skills, lower status, and prestige related to “stigma by association” or “courtesy stigma”)
Nurses’ negative judgments towards nurses with mental illness appear to be not only directed towards their colleagues but self-directed as well because?
the nurses affected by mental illness attributed their own psychiatric illness to ‘a personality weakness or character defect’ which contribute to stigmatizing MH.
“stigma by association” or “courtesy stigma” is:
Whereby those who are associated with the mentally ill are also judged by the same stigmatizing stereotypes. They are seen as the least liable ‘to be described as skilled, logical, dynamic and respected’
The recovery model of rehabilitation is:
Identified life beyond symptom management; it is based upon a collaborative, consumer-driven process that challenges previous conceptions of intervention goals, such as a passive participation in dictated treatment.
