From NAMI Blogs
By Sue Abderholden | Mar. 07, 2019
At NAMI, we seek to improve the lives of those with mental illnesses and their families. We do this through education, support and advocacy. Part of advocacy is changing laws, and also public attitudes. Every civil and human rights movement has had to do both to make progress.
The mental health movement has increasingly used the word “stigma” to describe the negative public attitudes towards people with mental illnesses. It’s short and easy to say. By definition, it’s a mark of disgrace, a negative stereotype. People with mental illness have said that stigma, how people judge them, is a barrier to a full life. Even the 1999 US Surgeon General’s report identified stigma as one of the greatest barriers to seeking treatment.
But perhaps it’s time to use the word “stigma” more sparingly, if at all. In reality, what people with mental illness are facing is not stigma, it’s discrimination. If you believe as I do that NAMI is a movement, a civil and human rights movement, we need to start saying the word—discrimination—more often.
If people were having…
(Read the rest of the article on NAMI Blogs…)