Title: Factors influencing mental illness stigma in Iran: Qualitative study
1Factors influencing mental illness stigma in
Iran Qualitative study
- Alireza Momeni, Soroor Parvizy, Nargess
Shafaroodi - Iran University of Medical Sciences
2To people with a diagnosis of mental illness as
a part of society
3Structure
- Aim
- to investigate the factors influencing mental
illness stigma in Iran. - METHOD
- A content analysis with a qualitative approach
- Semi-structured interviews
- 12 participants(5femal, 7male) aged 22 61years
including people with a diagnosis of mental
illness, mental health professionals and lawyer. - purposive sampling from three psychiatric centers
in Tehran
4 5Lack of public knowledge relating mental illness
- According a psychiatrist, most of the people
consider all the mental patients to two or three
certain mental disorders, which is due to lack of
knowledge.
6Negative attitudes
- A social worker
- " Stigma is not a disease, my viewpoint
regarding to such patient generates stigma the
viewpoints of me and of others cause stigma which
make both the patient and his family suffer from
it"
7Negative attitudes
- A lawyer
- Unfortunately, the public attitude towards the
mental patients is not a positive one in fact
social stigma and the negative opinion which is
not limited only to those who have no high
education. There are also some highly- educated
people who has not studies about the mental
patients, they don't know them, and may have the
same attitude of an illiterate person toward the
mental patients, I have seen by my own eyes,
there were even some people who had a PhD but
not in the field of health, and their attitude in
this regard was even worse than the others "
8" some physicians have such stigmatizing view
toward the People with a mental illness "
9Stereotypes
- Stereotypes and a series of traditional thoughts
about the mental disorders results in emotional
and behavioral reactions of the individuals in
relating and interacting with the people with a
diagnosis of mental illness.
10people with a diagnosis of mental illness are
violent and dangerous.They are uncontrolled.
- They may not be cured.
- They are disabled person and a permanent
dependent.
11"a mental patient is worse than leprosy, we
shake hand with that patient, sit with him, but
families abandon mental patients"
- An individual with a diagnosis of mental illness
12"they dont pay attention to us or our works, I
mean they say he is sick until the last day of
his life so we shouldn't give him money, he
shouldn't have any facilities, so we get sicker
and sicker day by day"
- An individual with a diagnosis of mental illness
13Insufficient treatment process
- Defective treatment and rehabilitation process of
the mental patients is also the basis for
generating of stigma for the mental patients in
the public.
14A Psychiatrist
- ", in prevention level when we do not give a
proper knowledge or a wrong knowledge is given,
then there is stigma, also when rehabilitation is
not made correctly in the third level, then it
means the mental patients may not be cured and
that they will always remain like that"
15 if the process of assessment, treatment, and
caring is not done properly, that will be quite
effective "
16Weakness of the law relating mental illness
- is one of the issues which plays a role in
establishment of stigma in the mental patients.
17A social workers talks about the lack of a
separate rule in the field mental health and says
- " why we should not have a separate mental
health rule, well, which rule shall be comply to,
and which rule can the patient use"
18Negative influence of media
- The Stigmatization Role of TV
- " watch the advertisement we have seen about the
mental patient, they show a patient who has an
untidy appearance, well, In fact, all the mental
patients are not like that" - An individual with a diagnosis of mental illness
-
19Neglecting the mental disease by the media
- " TV, media, newspapers, etc. they all may have
positive effects on the public trust toward the
mental patients, but unfortunately their role in
this regard is not clear, and those who practice
in this field are also refuse to enter the
discussion of the mental patients" - A lawyer says
-
20The findings showed although stigma is identified
as a major concern to most people with a
diagnosis of mental illness in different
societies, but it largely depends on social,
cultural and ideological context.
21CONCLUSION
- Understanding of the Socio-cultural factors
contributing to stigma is considerably important
to develop anti-stigma programs.
22Suggestions
- educational programs
- changing public attitudes towards mental illness
- alterations in media depictions
- adopting Proper legislation
- enhancing effective treatments
23Thank you