Combating Stigma & Discrimination

Click on this photo to join our Open Minds Open Doors Campaign An estimated 50 million Americans experience a mental disorder in a given year, yet people with a mental illness would rather tell their employers they have committed a petty crime and were in jail than admit to being in a psychiatric hospital.  Why?  Because of the stigma that is associated with mental illnesses.

  • Stigma results in fear, mistrust, and violence against people living with mental illnesses. 
  • Stigma prevents people from receiving needed mental health services. 
  • Stigma is a barrier and discourages individuals and their families from getting the help they need due to fear of being discriminated against.
source: SAMHSA

Recent Research

Stigma from Mental Illnesses High, Probably Worsening (PsychCentral.com, September 23, 2010)
  • "Despite widespread efforts to educate the public of the neurobiological basis for mental illness, researchers have found no improvement in discrimination toward people suffering with serious mental health or substance abuse problems."

Attitudes Toward Mental Illness --- 35 States, District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico, 2007 (Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR), May 28, 2010, 59(20);619-625) 
  • "Negative attitudes about mental illness often underlie stigma, which can cause affected persons to deny symptoms; delay treatment; be excluded from employment, housing, or relationships; and interfere with recovery (1). Understanding attitudes toward mental illness at the state level could help target initiatives to reduce stigma, but state-level data are scant. To study such attitudes, CDC analyzed data from the District of Columbia (DC), Puerto Rico, and the 35 states participating in the 2007 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) (the most recent data available), which included two questions on attitudes toward mental illness."

To learn more about combating stigma click on one of the links in the menu to the left or one of the related links below:


This poster is available for distribution! Read information below on how to get copies. Posters Available
If you are looking for material to distribute at your local Campaign for Mental Health Recovery support events or other mental health related events, you may be interested to know that SAMHSA’s National Mental Health Information Center (NMHIC), has free anti-stigma reduction posters available for ordering (poster is displayed on this page). To order copies of the poster, you may call NMHIC at 1-800-789-2647 and request the poster using inventory code OEL99-0001. You can order larger quantities of the poster if so desired.