Estimates indicate that as many as 1 in 4 Americans will experience a mental health problem or will misuse alcohol or drugs in their lifetimes. These disorders are among the most highly stigmatized health conditions in the United States, and they remain barriers to full participation in society in areas as basic as education, housing, and employment. Improving the lives of people with mental health and substance abuse disorders has been a priority in the United States for more than 50 years. The Community Mental Health Act of 1963 is considered a major turning point in America's efforts to improve behavioral healthcare. It ushered in an era of optimism and hope and laid the groundwork for the consumer movement and new models of recovery. The consumer movement gave voice to people with mental and substance use disorders and brought their perspectives and experience into national discussions about mental health. However over the same 50-year period, positive change in American public attitudes and beliefs about mental and substance use disorders has lagged behind these advances. Stigma is a complex social phenomenon based on a relationship between an attribute and a stereotype that assigns undesirable labels, qualities, and behaviors to a person with that attribute. Labeled individuals are then socially devalued, which leads to inequality and discrimination. This report contributes to national efforts to understand and change attitudes, beliefs and behaviors that can lead to stigma and discrimination. Changing stigma in a lasting way will require coordinated efforts, which are based on the best possible evidence, supported at the national level with multiyear funding, and planned and implemented by an effective coalition of representative stakeholders. Ending Discrimination Against People with Mental and Substance Use Disorders: The Evidence for Stigma Change explores stigma and discrimination faced by individuals with mental or substance use disorders and recommends effective strategies for reducing stigma and encouraging people to seek treatment and other supportive services. It offers a set of conclusions and recommendations about successful stigma change strategies and the research needed to inform and evaluate these efforts in the United States.

In The Mark of Shame, Stephen P. Hinshaw addresses the psychological, social, historical, and evolutionary roots of the stigma of mental illness as well as the long history of such stigmatization.

Provides a comprehensive review of research evidence on physical diseases in people with schizophrenia.

This book makes a highly innovative contribution to overcoming the stigma and discrimination associated with mental illness – still the heaviest burden both for those afflicted and those caring for them. The scene is set by the presentation of different fundamental perspectives on the problem of stigma and discrimination by researchers, consumers, families, and human rights experts. Current knowledge and practice used in reducing stigma are then described, with information on the programmes adopted across the world and their utility, feasibility, and effectiveness. The core of the volume comprises descriptions of new approaches and innovative programmes specifically designed to overcome stigma and discrimination. In the closing part of the book, the editors – all respected experts in the field – summarize some of the most important evidence- and experience-based recommendations for future action to successfully rewrite the long and burdensome ‘story’ of mental illness stigma and discrimination.

Community mental health care has evolved as a discipline over the past 50 years, and within the past 20 years, there have been major developments across the world. The Oxford Textbook of Community Mental Health is the most comprehensive and authoritative review published in the field, written by an international and interdisciplinary team.

Challenging the Stigma of Mental Illness offers practical strategies for addressing the harmful effects of stigma attached to mental illness. It considers both major forms of stigma: public stigma, which is prejudice and discrimination endorsed by the general population; and self-stigma, the loss of self-esteem and efficacy that occurs when an individual internalizes prejudice and discrimination. Invaluable guide for professionals and volunteers working in any capacity to challenge discrimination against mental illness Contains practical worksheets and intervention guidelines to facilitate the implementation of specific anti-stigma approaches Authors are highly experienced and respected experts in the field of mental illness stigma research

This book is a collection of writings on how society has stigmatized mentally ill persons, their families, and their caregivers. First-hand accounts poignantly portray what it is like to be the victim of stigma and mental illness. Stigma and Mental Illness also presents historical, societal, and institutional viewpoints that underscore the devastating effects of stigma.

Social psychiatry is concerned with the effects of the social environment on the mental health of the individual, and with the effects of the person with a mental disorder on his/her social environment. The field encompasses social interventions, prevention and the promotion of mental health. This new edition of Principles of Social Psychiatry provides a broad overview of current thinking in this expanding field and will be a source of ideas both in research and for the management of mental disorder. It opens by putting social psychiatry in perspective, within both psychiatry and the social sciences. From the patient's perspective, the outermost influence is the culture in which they live, followed by their neighbourhoods, workmates, and friends and family. The next section considers how we conceptualize the social world, from families through cultural identify and ethnicity to the wider social environment. The book reviews the social determinants and consequences of the major mental disorders before considering interventions and service delivery at various levels to mitigate these. It closes with a review of the social impact of mental illness around the world and a thoughtful essay by the editors on the current state of social psychiatry and where it is heading.