Community Mental Health: Stigma and the Recovery Process

This essay delves into the significant influence of stigma on the recovery process for individuals grappling with mental health problems. It elucidates the meaning of stigma, its effects on those with mental illnesses, and how it complicates their recovery journey. The paper highlights that stigma leads to social isolation, discrimination in healthcare, and internalized self-stigma, hindering access to treatment and support. It also addresses the economic burden of mental illness and the disparities in research funding due to stigma. Ultimately, the essay underscores the need for societal strategies to combat stigma and promote inclusive support systems for individuals with mental health issues, thereby facilitating their recovery and improving their overall well-being. Desklib offers a wide range of resources, including solved assignments and past papers, to aid students in understanding and addressing these critical issues.

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MENTAL HEALTH IN THE COMMUNITY
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MENTAL HEALTH IN THE COMMUNITY
Introduction
This paper discusses the influence of stigma on the recovery process for individuals with
mental health problems. The paper examines the actual meaning of the word Stigma and
recovery process of individuals with the mental illness. The key words that this paper will look at
are Stigma, Recovery and Mental illness. Stigma is a mark associated with disgrace. Stigma is a
negative characteristic that causes people to think less of another person. Individuals with mental
health problem are one of the groups being affected by Stigma (McGinty, Goldman, Pescosolido
and Barry 2015).
Mental illnesses are the conditions of health that involve changes in emotion, thinking or
behaving (or combination of all the factors). Mental health problem is mostly related to distress
and or difficulties functioning in family or work (Corrigan, Druss and Perlick 2014).
Recovery means retaining and gaining hope, social identity, understanding another
person disabilities and abilities and having a positive sense of life. Therefore, recovery regarding
mental health is the process that involves changes which improve the wellness and health of
people and enables them to attain their full potential (Scott, Pope, Quick, Aitken and Parkinson
2018).
Social stigma that is related to mental health illness can make the life of individuals with
the disease to be full of different challenges and this may make the recovery process to be
complicated. According to the World Economic Forum, mental illness has the highest economic
burden on issues of health in the world, the total cost in 2010 is $ 2.5 trillion; the projection

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burden cost of 2030 is $6 trillion with 2/3 of the cost will go to loss of work and disability. The
shocking news is that out of the 450 million of the general population in the world that
experiences mental health problems, the majority of them (60%) does not get care services, with
90% of the total population in countries that are developing are not receiving any form of care
because of the discrimination and stigma that the individuals with the mental illness experiences
in the health care (Insel, 2011). Most individuals who are experiencing mental health illness can
recover fully, or are capable of living and managing themselves, especially when they receive
assistance at an early stage. Although many individuals are affected, there exists a strong social
stigma that relates to mental illness, and people with this kind of disease can experience
discrimination in different aspects of their lives (Link, Wells, Phelan and Yang 2015). The
problems encountered by many individuals become worse with the existence of discrimination of
stigma that they are experienced in the society, As well as from friends, families, and employers
(Ezell, Choi, Wall and Link 2018).
Many individuals with mental health illness reveal that stigma has a negative influence
on their lives. This is because many people who have mental health illness are among the
unfavorable group with a long duration of health situation or disability to Live in good housing,
find work, be in long-term, steady relationship, and be socially involved in the activities of the
society. The society at large has the stereotyped opinion about mental health problems and how it
influences individuals. (Ayenalem, Tiruye and Muhamme 2017).
Stigma worsens people’s mental health illness and impedes or delays them from getting
treatment and assistance, as well as their recovery. Poor housing, unemployment, poverty and
poor housing are all related to the mental health problem. Therefore, stigma can hinder the

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recover for the individual that experience mental health illness (Corrigan, Druss and Perlick
2014).
Most individuals with issues of mental health internalize and recognize stigma and use it
in developing a self-stigma. The stigma (self-stigma) can lessen the effectiveness of self-
efficacy, leading to the attitude of ‘why try’ that undermine and influence the recovery.
Additionally, as individuals begin to experience signs of mental health conditions, for example,
depression or anxiety, Stigma may make some individual try avoiding, suppress from or separate
these feelings, all these will weaken the well-being of the people (Corrigan et al. 2018).The
social isolation and rejection that arises due to Stigma can cause direct adverse effects. The truth
is that social isolation is related to physical health and poor mental outcomes and it also leads to
early mortality.
The adverse effect being caused by stigma can be seen in health care system where those
with mental problems are unable to get assistance from the breadth and depth of available
Healthcare service (physical) than individuals without the mental illness. Studies show that
Stigma can make people who experience mental illness obtains less medical services than those
without the disease because of discrimination and prejudice in mental health care (Perry and
Pescosolido 2015).
The discrepancy between the funding of research as compared to the cost of disorders of
the mental health is striking, and this takes place because of the Stigma are associated with
mental illness issues. An example in United States, mental health issues has a total of 23% of the
country burden, but only gets 13% of the total funding. Worse, this requirement for social
distancing and Stigma can influence the criminalization of those who have mental health

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problems. Individuals that experience mental health have the highest probability of being in jail
than being put in psychiatric facilities. (Turan et al. 2015).
Stigma not only affects the personal level of an individual, but it can also complicate the
resources and are available to individuals with the mental health illness. Several research works
suggest that that Stigma can lead to poor quality in the provision of care and prioritization of the
resources for the general public.
Stigma can also be used to marginalize and exclude people. The fear and prejudice that
take place due to Stigma may even stop individuals from seeking the assistance that they need.
Stigma can also prevent individuals who are ready to support and offer help hence the recovery
process to those with the mental illness will not be easy. Stigma may make individuals feel
embarrassed and ashamed of their mental health problems. This is because they are unwilling to
share their problems with other people for fear of being neglected in the activities of the society.
Conclusion
Stigma holds both discrimination behavior and prejudicial attitudes to individuals that
experience mental health issues, as well as impacts to our social life include poor social support,
self-esteem becomes low, and exclusion. Research suggests that stigma can prevent individuals
from fully participating or seeking services of the mental health. Therefore, to control the issues
related to stigma, society should come up with suitable strategies that can help solve all problems
caused by Stigma to people with mental health problems.

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References
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