Nearly 50% of Americans will meet the diagnostic criteria of some form of mental illness in their lifetime (Mehta & Edwards, 2018). However, only 40% of these individuals will seek treatment for them. Patients with mental illness have a lifespan that is, on average, 25 years shorter than individuals without mental illness and are at 2-3 times the risk of diabetes, heart, and lung disease than the average population but do not receive adequate treatment at a proportionate rate. As a country, there are very negative stereotypes held towards individuals struggling with mental illness and substance use disorders even though they are among the most common conditions in the population. This stigma against mental illness often prevents individuals from seeking care for their symptoms and causes medical providers to treat patients with mental illness differently than those without them. Stigma can be seen in the way providers speak about patients with mental illness, the way the medical record labels patients with mental illness, and even how health care providers themselves fail to seek treatment when suffering from mental illness themselves. This thesis examines the types of stigmas that exist, describes how it interferes with clinical care and causes adverse clinical outcomes for patients with mental illness and substance use disorders and provides recommendations for improving the treatment of individuals with mental illness and the importance of normalizing talking about mental illness. / Urban Bioethics