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The aim of this novel piece of research was to explore experiences of self-stigma amongst a group of older people (aged 65+) currently using mental health services. In order to try and identify possible contributing factors to internalized stigma it was also decided to gather information on optimism and a baseline measure of distress. These scores were all compared with the individual’s likeliness to continue to use the mental health services as it was hypothesized that higher levels of self-stigma would be linked with a lower likelihood to continue to use services. Fourteen participants (age range 65-92) from three different geographical areas agreed to take part having been approached by a mental health professional known to them. Interviews were then arranged directly with each participant, with each interview being made up of three questionnaire measures to rate levels of distress, optimism and experiences of mental health stigma, a Likelihood to Continue to Use Services rating scale, and a repertory grid. The repertory grids had been specifically designed to explore the construct systems of the participants in relation to their age. The main finding was that experiences of mental health stigma were minimal, but that participants showed some signs of internalizing ageist attitudes. However, neither of these variables was correlated with a likelihood to continue to use services, suggesting that it is factors other than mental health stigma and age stigma and selfstigmatization that impact on an older person’s decision to continue to engage with mental health services or not. The small sample size also meant that power was lacking from the findings, indicating that further research needs to be carried out. This study has opened up a research area which needs further ongoing investigation in order to fully explore the clinical implications of self-stigma in relation to age and mental health problems. Areas of potential future research are offered and briefly explored.

Personer som diagnostiserats med schizofreni upplever fördomar och diskriminering både i samhället och i sin egen värld som en form av internalisering som också kallas självstigma. Även om allmän stigma inträffar av en större befolkning spelar själv-stigma också en viktig roll genom att patienterna drabbas av många negativa konsekvenser. I denna artikel fokuserar jag på de negativa följderna av självstigma för personer med schizofreni. Dessutom undersökte jag hur stigmas negativa effekter spelar en viktig roll under behandlingsprocessen. Som en metod intervjuade jag 10 patienter som diagnostiserats med schizofreni baserat på 10 öppna frågor och analyserade data efteråt vilket hjälpte mig att förstå de negativa effekterna av internaliserad självstigma på dem. Majoriteten av svaren visade att de var oroliga för att ses oskäligt vilket ledde till att de undvek att berätta för sin psykiska sjukdom för andra. Resultaten visade också att de har en dålig livskvalitet, dåliga sociala interaktioner och problem att fortsätta sina medicinska och terapeutiska behandlingar på grund av deras internaliserade negativa tankar. / People who are diagnosed with schizophrenia experience prejudice and discrimination both in the society and in their own world as a form of internalization which is also called as self-stigma. Although public stigma is occurred by a larger population, self-stigma also plays an important role by having patients suffer numerous negative consequences. In this article, I focused on those negative consequences of self-stigma for people with schizophrenia. Furthermore, I examined how the negative effects of the stigma plays an important role during the treatment process. As a method, I interviewed 10 patients who were diagnosed with schizophrenia based on 10 open-ended questions and analyzed the data afterwards which helped me understand the negative effects of internalized self-stigma on them. The majority of the responses indicated that they were worried to be viewed unfavorably which led them avoid telling their mental illness to others. The results also showed that they have poor quality of life, little to none social interactions and troubles continuing their medical and therapeutic treatments because of their internalized negative thoughts.

Clients experiences in attempting to access counselling help have rarely been studied. As such, a full and clear understanding of clients experiences with accessing services, as well as identification of the barriers encountered by clients and clients ideas about what would make accessing more comfortable, have eluded researchers. Typically, the research focus has been quantitative investigations of the no-show phenomenon, whereby clients fail to arrive at pre-booked counselling appointments. Such studies have left 24% of the variance in the unexplained "other" category. More recently, researchers have begun to question whether or not mental health stigma impacts counselling attendance. The present study sought to describe the experience of individuals who self identified as having booked a counselling appointment within the previous 8-months and then had failed to attend. A basic interpretive qualitative research design (Merriam, 2002) was employed for the purpose of describing and understanding this phenomenon, with special emphasis given to identifying possible barriers to accessing counselling. Interviews with four middle class Caucasian adults aged 27-33; two of whom had accessed counselling previously and two of whom had not, were conducted. Transcripts were analyzed in terms of a shared meaning and descriptive categories (Kearney, 2001). Findings revealed that stigma, self-stigma, several fears, and some counselling practices functioned as barriers. However, participants also expressed positive emotions associated with reaching out and accessing counselling help and a desire for information about what to expect in counselling, whether they had accessed previously or not. The beginnings of a pattern associated with accessing counselling are discussed and implications for counselling practice and future research are described.

Clients experiences in attempting to access counselling help have rarely been studied. As such, a full and clear understanding of clients experiences with accessing services, as well as identification of the barriers encountered by clients and clients ideas about what would make accessing more comfortable, have eluded researchers. Typically, the research focus has been quantitative investigations of the no-show phenomenon, whereby clients fail to arrive at pre-booked counselling appointments. Such studies have left 24% of the variance in the unexplained "other" category. More recently, researchers have begun to question whether or not mental health stigma impacts counselling attendance. The present study sought to describe the experience of individuals who self identified as having booked a counselling appointment within the previous 8-months and then had failed to attend. A basic interpretive qualitative research design (Merriam, 2002) was employed for the purpose of describing and understanding this phenomenon, with special emphasis given to identifying possible barriers to accessing counselling. Interviews with four middle class Caucasian adults aged 27-33; two of whom had accessed counselling previously and two of whom had not, were conducted. Transcripts were analyzed in terms of a shared meaning and descriptive categories (Kearney, 2001). Findings revealed that stigma, self-stigma, several fears, and some counselling practices functioned as barriers. However, participants also expressed positive emotions associated with reaching out and accessing counselling help and a desire for information about what to expect in counselling, whether they had accessed previously or not. The beginnings of a pattern associated with accessing counselling are discussed and implications for counselling practice and future research are described.

Introduction: This research portfolio set out to examine service user defined recovery in psychosis. A systematic review was undertaken to examine the evidence-base for the effectiveness of psychosocial interventions on personal recovery, empowerment and other recovery-related outcomes. An empirical study was conducted to examine the relationships between self-stigma, decisional capacity for treatment and personal recovery in service users with psychosis. Methods: A review of published literature identified ten randomised controlled trials investigating the effects of psychosocial interventions on personal recovery. A narrative synthesis was reported for findings relating to primary and secondary outcomes, and standardised effect sizes were calculated to quantify within-group change from pre-to post-intervention and follow-up. Studies were assessed for risk of bias. The empirical study recruited twenty-four participants with diagnoses of non-affective psychosis. Semi-structured interviews and self-report measures were administered to assess self-stigma, decisional capacity for treatment, psychopathology, emotional distress and personal recovery. Results: A small number of studies found that recovery-focused psychosocial interventions improved personal recovery. There were more consistent effects on psychiatric symptoms, functioning and depression. The empirical study found that self-stigma and personal recovery were associated with each other. Large effect sizes were found for the associations between self-stigma and symptoms. These associations persisted when controlling for personal recovery scores. Understanding of treatment was predicted by excitement symptoms, but no other prediction model emerged for decisional capacity. Conclusion: Taken together, the systematic review and empirical project support service user definitions of recovery which highlight the role of psychosocial factors. The systematic review found some evidence for the role of recovery-focused psychosocial interventions in improving personal recovery. Further research is needed so that interventions specifically targeting the processes in personal recovery can be developed. The findings from the empirical project suggested that interventions designed to overcome self-stigmatising beliefs and reduce emotional distress are likely to improve personal recovery outcomes in psychosis. More research is needed to develop a broader conceptualisation of decisional capacity in psychosis, to support the active participation of service users in their recovery journey.

Premenstruellt syndrom (PMS) och menstruation är stigmatiserade ämnen. Det kan ge kvinnor bristande självkänsla och hjälper till att upprätthålla den negativa tonen i diskussionen vilket gör att de kan vara svårt eller till och med tabu att prata om. Stigma från våra närstående kan bidra till ökad självstigmatisering. Studiens syfte var att undersöka vilka samband det finns mellan PMS, självstigmatisering, uppfattat stigma och ålderns interaktionseffekt på dessa. Även hur kvinnor talat och talar om PMS undersöktes. Studien utfördes på 88 kvinnor i fertil ålder som besvarade en enkät som innefattade sammanlagt 40 frågor varav tre var öppna. Resultatet visade inget samband mellan PMS och självstigma. Positiva samband fanns mellan PMS och uppfattat stigma. Undersökningen visade också på positiv korrelation mellan självstigma och uppfattat stigma. I och med att undersökningen ej påvisade något samband mellan PMS och självstigma diskuterades om att en diskursförändring kan vara på gång.

This study investigated the relationship between public stigma, self-stigma, and help-seeking attitudes in a sample of undergraduate student-athletes. Student-athletes appear to be at increased risk for developing mental health issues compared to their non-athlete counterparts (Etzel et al., 2006). However, student-athletes appear to underutilize available mental health services for fear of being labeled as mentally ill as well as other factors (Pinkerton, Hinz, and Barrow, 1989). The purpose of the current study is to explore two facets of stigma as a potential explanation for negative attitudes toward help-seeking and thus the underutilization of these mental health services. Sixty-six student-athletes completed a 10-minute paper-pencil survey. The survey included measures of self-stigma, public stigma, help-seeking attitudes, demographic variables, and an open-ended question regarding barriers to help-seeking. Results indicated that self-stigma mediated the relationship between public stigma and help-seeking attitudes, which replicates the mediated model found in Vogel et al. (2007). Self-stigma appears to explain how negative stereotypes about those who seek help are internalized to form negative attitudes toward help-seeking for student-athletes. Further, student-athletes noted barriers to help-seeking such as lack of time or knowledge of resources as well as fear of being labeled as mentally ill. Implications for research and practice are delineated.

Alcohol use disorder (AUD) is a highly stigmatized condition, often associated with negative stereotypes such as being morally weak, incompetent, unpredictable, and aggressive. People with AUD are at risk of experiencing self-stigma, a social-cognitive experience in which people think others hold negative stereotypes about them, expect to be treated unfairly, and/or believe that negative stereotypes are personally accurate. Women in the criminal justice system with AUD in particular are at risk of experiencing self-stigma due to intersecting sources of disadvantage. Given that self-stigma can lead to treatment avoidance and dropout, it is important to understand risk factors for self-stigma to inform prevention and intervention efforts in the justice system. Incarcerated women with AUD (=185) completed measures of alcohol self-stigma as well as a variety of theoretically relevant risk factors including sociodemographics, baseline levels of stress and depression, and alcohol-related factors (i.e., length of drinking history, frequency/amount of use, consequences of use, physician advice to stop, belief that legal involvement is related to alcohol use, alcohol-related charges, self-efficacy to quit, readiness for treatment, pressures to enter treatment, factors that influence treatment) and other stigmatized conditions (drug use, exchanging sex, and homelessness). Results showed that experiencing more consequences of alcohol use, pressures to enter treatment, and perceived stress were associated with internalized stigma and anticipated/enacted stigma. This study begins to identify which incarcerated women with AUD are most at risk of experiencing self-stigma that may interfere with alcohol treatment.

No description available.