Stigma In Health Care Essay

The World Health Organization (2017) cited stigma as the most significant barrier to seeking psychological services despite advancement in treatment for mental health conditions. This reinforces the statement made by Corrigan (2004) who postulated that the stigma placed on mental illness alone is sufficient to deter help seeking among the general population. Blaine (2006) explained that stigma includes the perception of being defected and fear of being ostracized or rejected. Research has demonstrated that there is a significant negative relationship between stigma and attitude towards seeking professional help. Corrigan (2004) asserted that there are two separate types of stigma affecting an individual's decision to seek treatment. The first, public stigma is the expectation that they will be devalued or be discriminated against because seeking help is socially

unacceptable (Voguel, Wade & Hacklet, 2007). The second, self-stigma, is the internalization of the idea that people who seek help are devalued which leads to them internalizing the idea that they are inferior, inadequate, or weak (Vogel, Wade, and Hackler,2006; Corrigan, 2004).
Given the negative perceptions of those who seek psychological services, it is not surprising that individuals hide their psychological concerns and avoid treatment to limit the harmful consequences associated with being stigmatized (Corrigan & Matthews, 2003). In scenario-based research (Ben-Porath, 2002), people were rated more emotionally unstable, less interesting and less confident that those who were seeking help for physical pain such as back pain. Not only those having a mental illness is stigmatizing but the act of seeking help is also viewed negatively by the public.
Researchers hypothesize that people hide psychological concerns and avoid treatment to limit the harmful consequences associated with public stigma (Corrigan & Matthews, 2003).

For example, 70% of college men do not seek counselling or any psychological services despite experiencing mental health concern (Eisenberg, Hunt and Speer,2012). The fear of being stigmatized is so powerful that despite the severity of the consequence for not seeking psychological help, people are still less likely to seek help (Vogel, Wade and Tackler, 2006). Corrigan calls this label avoidance, which he defines as the tendency to deny mental health concerns and not seek the treatment that can cause one to be negatively labelled (Vogel, Wade& Haake, 2006). Thus, even if psychological services are beneficial, the fear of being viewed negatively by others deters people from seeking psychological help. This is also true for men, who are taught that being masculine means not being emotional and they need to be self-reliant, they would be reluctant to psychological services because they deem seeking help as a sign of

weakness.