Strategies for Overcoming the Mental Health Stigma in Medical Practices

When a person experiences a physical ailment, their friends and family members encourage them to visit a doctor. But seeking treatment for mental illness isn’t nearly as normalized or accepted.

The mental health stigma is still widely prevalent, preventing people from recognizing their own issues or seeking care. Your medical practice may inadvertently perpetuate this stigma as well. Addressing the negative stereotypes surrounding mental illness can help you improve patient care and support the best patient outcomes.

Defining Mental Health Stigma

While you may have heard the term “mental health stigma” before, you may not know what it looks like or how it might manifest in your clinical practice.

What Is Mental Health Stigma?

Mental health stigma refers to the negative attitudes and stereotypes surrounding mental health problems. This term can refer to three different types of stigma:

• Public stigma: The negative attitudes surrounding people with mental illness from the general public, affecting the frequency with which these topics are discussed in public settings.
• Self-stigma: Harsh attitudes individuals with mental health conditions display toward themselves, often preventing them from seeking treatment or validating their illnesses.
• Structural stigma: Systematic practices and policies that limit the availability of mental health treatment and suppress the opportunities for those struggling with these issues.

All of these types of stigma play into each other, creating a general sense of discomfort and unease around mental health topics. These negative stereotypes also lead many people to perpetuate myths and false information about the topic, further contributing to the stigma and impacting the availability of help for those who need it.

Causes of Mental Health Stigma

Throughout history, myths surrounding mental illness and its origins have led to fear and misunderstanding. But today, when factual information about mental health is widely available, much of this stigma remains.

The stigma around mental illness is complicated, originating from various causes that impact each other, such as the following:

• Cultural beliefs: Mental health is a taboo topic in countless cultures. Across the U.S., many people feel uncomfortable discussing the subject outside of their close circle of family and friends. Other cultures may not recognize mental illness as a serious concern or tie mental health issues to supernatural causes.
• Media portrayals: The portrayal of mental illness in media, such as TV shows, movies, and books, has not done much to dispel myths around the topic. People with mental illness are often dramatized or sensationalized. They are sometimes portrayed as violent or unpredictable, generating more fear among the general public.
• Lack of education: Many people simply don’t understand mental illness and its biological origins. They see it as something scary or unnatural. They may believe that a friend with depression or a family member with bipolar disorder is simply “being dramatic” or making it up. They may also see mental illness as a sign of weakness or a choice rather than something outside a person’s control.
• Personal experiences: When a person has had negative experiences surrounding mental illness, they may hesitate to recognize their own struggles or seek help. For example, someone who has experienced discrimination for mental health conditions may mask future issues. Trauma and abuse often lead to mental illness, but those struggling may feel shame or avoid seeking help because they do not want to revisit their trauma.

Impact of Mental Health Stigma on Patients

The mental illness stigma has had countless harmful effects on people with mental illness and the general population. While the impact of this stigma is far-reaching, two of the most significant effects pertain to the difficulty people with mental health issues face when attempting to overcome their symptoms.

Barriers to Seeking Treatment

The discrimination stigma has made seeking mental illness treatment taboo. Many people who do pursue mental health services hide this choice from others out of fear of judgment or disapproval. Others never seek treatment at all, remaining under the false impression that they can overcome this “personal weakness” with enough effort.

For people in many Asian cultures, seeking psychiatric care can lead to social isolation or even being disowned by the family. The harsh consequences they might face prevent many from seeking professional help.

Meanwhile, the internalized stigma that many experience may convince them that their symptoms will go away on their own or that their mental health concerns are all in their head.

If the general public viewed mental illness more favorably, people would feel more comfortable pursuing psychiatric care and support.

Effects on Patient Outcomes

Treating mental illness is often challenging enough without the negative stereotypes that surround it. This stigma can affect patient outcomes in a few ways.

For one, individuals who do pursue mental health services may discontinue treatment prematurely because of the negative opinions they receive from others. They may take the first step to pursue treatment only to learn that their family or friends do not support them.

Even for those who stay the course and continue working with healthcare professionals, the negative attitudes and discrimination they experience can impact their recovery in a negative way. Fully recovering from mental illness is often easier when you have a support system around you.

Overcoming the Mental Health Stigma in Medical Practices

While the public attitudes surrounding mental health are worrisome, you may feel that your healthcare practice takes a level-headed approach to mental illness, just like any physical ailments your patients might face. But you may not realize how much the mental health stigma has seeped into your patient interactions and practices.

These tips can help reduce mental health stigma in your practice and enhance the quality of care for patients.

Educating Healthcare Providers

Many aspects of mental illness stigma fall below a person’s conscious awareness. Your providers may not be aware of how stereotypes and discrimination have crept into their minds.

By educating your healthcare providers on the symptoms of mental illness and the harmful stereotypes that surround this topic, you bring the stigma to their attention. They may be more likely to recognize their own biases and consciously change their attitudes surrounding patients with mental health issues.

They can also reverse any misconceptions they may have unknowingly held surrounding mental illness, such as that certain mental disorders commonly spark physical violence. This helps your providers feel more comfortable interacting with patients and providing the compassionate care they deserve.

Implementing Supportive Policies

Along with educating your clinicians to help them improve patient interactions, you can develop policies that promote mental health support within your healthcare practice.

For example, you might consider offering mental health services at no cost to staff members who need them. You can host workshops that teach coping mechanisms or encourage providers to evaluate their own mental health. You might even organize a support group for providers to open up about challenges they have faced on the job.

These steps show that management accepts and supports people with mental illness, encouraging your providers to do the same.

Encouraging Open Communication

Finally, the importance of open communication in healthcare practices cannot be overstated. By encouraging your providers to discuss their concerns or questions surrounding mental illness, you can reduce the mental illness stigma within your clinic.

This open communication may even encourage patients to disclose their struggles with mental health to their providers. When a nurse casually mentions taking medication for depression or going to a therapy session, their patient may feel more confident talking about their own struggles without fear of being treated differently.

Strategies for Patient Education and Engagement

Making changes in how you run your healthcare practice can help you overcome the stigma and discrimination surrounding mental health among your providers. You can also take steps to educate patients on important topics surrounding mental illness. Improving mental health literacy is one of the most effective methods of addressing mental health stigma.

Providing Educational Resources

People often hold false beliefs about mental illness, making it a scary subject for them and increasing the stigma. Your practice can provide educational resources to help put an end to these rumors and give your patients factual information.

These resources can cover topics like:

• Symptoms of common mental illnesses
• Statistics about the number of people who have certain conditions
• Case studies showing the effectiveness of various treatments
• Resources for mental health services in your area

Creating a Welcoming Environment

You can also focus on making your practice a welcoming environment for people with mental illness. Displaying pamphlets and posters in your waiting room or treatment rooms is an easy way to convey your support for these individuals.

You can also incorporate mental health-related questions into your intake or leave space for patients to write about any concerns on their new patient forms. By making mental illness a casual topic of conversation in your practice, patients will feel more comfortable asking questions or seeking resources from you.

The Role of Communication Platforms in Reducing Stigma

You can also use communication platforms to help reduce stigma in your healthcare practices. These tools make it easier to connect with your patient base and share appropriate interventions.

Utilizing Patient Communication Tools

With patient communication tools, you gain access to a range of features that streamline the process of reaching out to patients. For example, appointment reminders prevent them from forgetting about upcoming appointments. You can also provide digital forms they can fill out in advance, saving time in the waiting room.

Meanwhile, secure messaging features allow patients to communicate with their providers via instant message, which may help them feel more comfortable talking about mental health.

Collecting and Responding to Patient Feedback

You can also use patient communication tools to gather patient reviews and feedback. This can help you understand how comfortable patients currently feel talking about mental illness and related topics with your providers. Seeking feedback builds trust with your patient base and invites further conversation.

Weave Can Support Your Efforts To Reduce Mental Illness Stigma

By taking steps to challenge the mental health stigma in your practice, you can create a more welcoming, positive environment and improve patient outcomes. Weave’s patient communication solutions can support your efforts to reduce stigma.

Get a demo today to see how Weave can help your practice improve patient engagement and care.

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