Combating Self-Stigma Among Youth, Families, and Adults

Mental health stigma is an area of substantial public health importance. Although many people have grown more comfortable disclosing their mental health struggles in recent years, negative views of people with serious mental health challenges persist that continue to associate those challenges with violence, incompetence and inability to recover. These negative perceptions can be internalized by people with mental health challenges in the form of self-stigma, which can heighten shame, undermine self-esteem, and impact self-efficacy. Research has shown that the effects of mental health stigma have an impact above and beyond that of symptoms. This suggests that for many people the effects of mental health stigma can be worse than the mental health challenges themselves.

This series of events focuses on self-stigma, including the latest research on the topic and, most importantly, what providers can do to help mitigate the impact of self-stigma on people living with mental health challenges. This series features the work of Dr. Philip Yanos, an internationally recognized expert on mental health stigma.