WISCONSIN UNITED
for MENTAL HEALTH

Increasingly, more research is being conducted on discrimination and stigma associated with mental illnesses. Knowing what works and what does not work in countering stigma and discrimination helps guide the development and implementation of effective anti-stigma and anti-discrimination programs and activities.

The following is a summary of some such research.  The italicized text is taken from Dr. John Kanter's notes from a July 26, 2007 presentation, "Stigma and Depression."  Click here to view the PowerPoint presentation (11 MG).

Patrick Corrigan, a researcher from the Chicago Consortium for Stigma Research has identified three types of anti-stigma activities:

• Contact: Direct interactions with individuals with diagnosed mental disorders
• Education: Identify inaccurate stigmatizing attitudes and replace with accurate conceptions
• Protest: Public protest to challenge instances of stigmatizing attitudes and behaviors
  

Corrigan did a study directly comparing these three strategies. The contact condition involved an approximately 10 minute interaction with a person with severe bipolar disorder. The education condition was a 10 minute presentation targeting myths of mental illness, and the protest condition reviewed disrespectful ways mental illness has been portrayed in the media and expressed outrage and condemnation. There was also a control condition – a 10 minute presentation on hobbies and technology in the 90s.

Results suggested that the contact and education conditions both produced positive attitude changes, while protest and control did not, but contact also produced additional changes above and beyond attitudes as measured by self-report questionnaires. What Corrigan did was, after the presentations, all participants viewed a 3 minute videotape of an actor telling his life story of mental illness. Then, participants waited 10 minutes and then were asked to recall as many details of the person’s story as possible. It turned out that contact resulted in recall of more positive details about this person and less negative details.

This is important, because it suggests that spending time with mentally ill people can have a real impact.


Other Stigma Research Centers:
University of Illinois-Chicago National Research & Training Center on Psychiatric Disability (NRTC)

To learn about more research visit the ADS Center - Research Studies website


Stigma Research of Note:
Bluthenthal R., Jones L., Ellison M., Koegel P., Minnium K., Lucas-Wright A., Wells K. Witness for Wellness: A Community-University Participatory Research Mental Health Initiative. AcademyHealth Meeting. 2004 : San Diego, CA.

Chung. B et al. Talking wellness: a description of a community-academic partnered project to engage an African-American community around depression through the use of poetry, film, and photography. Ethnicity & Disease. 2006; Volume 16,67-78.

Golberstein, E., Eisenberg, D. Gollust, S. Perceived stigma and mental health care seeking. Psychiatric Services. April 2008;59:392-399.

Schmetzer A., Lafuze J., and Jack M. Overcoming stigma: Involving families in medical student and psychiatric residency education. Academic Psychiatry. May-June 2008;32(3):265

Spagnolo, A., Murphy, A. and Librera, L.A. Reducing stigma by meeting and learning from people with mental illness. Psychiatric Rehabilitation Journal. 2008; Volume 31, No. 3,186-193.