Public perceptions of mental health professionals: stigma by association?

BACKGROUND: Existing research has identified the phenomenon of associative stigma, but has not robustly illustrated that any stigmatisation of mental health professionals (MHPs) stems from association with clients. AIM: To examine whether public perceptions of MHPs mirror ideas about service users. METHOD: A mixed-methods approach incorporated statistical analysis of questionnaire results and thematic analysis of focus group transcripts. A convenience sample (N = 260) completed the questionnaire, rating "typical" target professionals (some treating specified mental health conditions) on semantic differential scales. Three focus groups (N = 15) triangulated questionnaire findings. RESULTS: Mirroring mental illness stereotypes, questionnaire participants rated counsellors and psychiatrists as more eccentric and unpredictable than GPs. Professionals specialising in treating substance abuse and schizophrenia were rated as less empathetic, agreeable, predictable and conventional than those treating depression, reflecting differing representations of these conditions. Specialists in depression and schizophrenia were rated as more withdrawn than those treating substance abuse. Focus group participants postulated that mental health problems may cause or result from mental health employment. CONCLUSION: MHPs seem stigmatised by association with clients. Future research should elucidate the origins of stigma to safeguard professionals' and clients' well-being.

'I don't know whether it is to do with age or to do with hormones and whether it is do with a stage in your life': making sense of menopause and the body.

This article discusses a mixed-methods study that explored women's views about menopause and any relationship between these and several measures of body consciousness. A total of 270 women in the United Kingdom completed surveys of menopausal attitudes, self-objectification, body surveillance and body shame. There was a positive association between rating highly on body dissatisfaction scales and holding negative attitudes towards menopause. Interviews (n = 12) were conducted to investigate this further. Menopause was inextricably linked with aging for these women, and changing appearance was a particular concern for women who rated high on self-objectification. The implications of this are discussed.

Perpetuating stigma? Differences between advertisements for psychiatric and non-psychiatric medication in two professional journals.

BACKGROUND: Continuing debates regarding advertising and the pharmaceutical industry, and others detailing the continued stigmatization of mental health problems. AIMS: To establish whether there are any differences in advertisements for psychiatric and non-psychiatric medication aimed at health professionals. METHOD: Quantitative (t-tests, Chi-squared) and qualitative analysis of all unique advertisements for medication that appeared in two professional journals (the British Medical Journal and the British Journal of Psychiatry) between October 2005 and September 2006 was undertaken. Close attention was paid to both images and text used in the advertisements. RESULTS: Significant differences were found between advertisements for psychiatric and non-psychiatric medication in both quantitative and qualitative analysis: advertisements for psychiatric medication contain less text and are less likely to include specific information about the actual drug than non-psychiatric medication advertisements; images used in advertisements for psychiatric medication are more negative than those used for non-psychiatric medication, and are less likely to portray people in everyday situations. CONCLUSION: A distinction between mental health problems and other forms of ill health is clearly being maintained in medication advertisements; this has potentially stigmatizing consequences, both for professional and public perceptions. There are also troubling implications in light of the debates surrounding Direct to Consumer Advertising.

Beyond otherness: controllability and location in mental health service clients' representations of mental health problems.

This paper focuses on a multi-method qualitative study of the social representations of mental health problems held by clients of the mental health services. Clients appear to represent mental health within representational projects, and, in the course of these projects, situate mental health problems at various points within a two-dimensional representational structure comprising controllability and location. It will be suggested that the element of Otherness, so integral to public representations of mental ill health, is therefore significantly more complicated in clients' representations. Similarly, the interaction between these two dimensions suggests that clients move beyond the professional divide between psychosis and neurosis. The implications of these results will be briefly considered.