Frozen Funds Project Success

Dunedin artist Fleur Kelsey has been awarded $6000 from the Frozen Funds Trust for an art exhibition project. Congratulations Fleur. We look forward to seeing your work unfold over the next 12 months. In this first year of operation the Frozen Funds Trust is supporting projects whose "...purpose it is to raise public awareness of the legacy of institutionalisation." Read more about the trust at Frozen Funds Trust .
 

 
Stigma and Discrimination...
 

My dictionary defines stigma as “a mark or sign of disgrace or discredit” and that to discriminate is to “make an unjust distinction in the treatment of different categories of people…” For people with experience of mental illness, stigma relates to the negative attitude towards the mental illness and discrimination relates to a negative action taken towards the person.

Let me give you an example. If an employer believes that people with experience of mental illness are dangerous (the stigma), a resulting action could be to never employ someone with a mental illness (the discrimination).

Does stigma and discrimination toward people with experience of mental illness occur in New Zealand? A 2004 survey by the New Zealand Mental Health Foundation entitled “Respect Costs Nothing” concludes that “discrimination was reported in a wide range of settings.” ( www.mentalhealth.org.nz Go to the research tab to download the full report). The Like Minds, Like Mine programme was set up over 10 years ago following the 1996 Mason report  which said: “It is fundamentally wrong that a vulnerable group in our society should be continually subjected to the comments and actions of those who possess an outcast mentality … “

What are the essential causes of discrimination? A Canadian report of the British Columbia Minister of Health’s Advisory Council on Mental Health in April 2002 (http://www.health.gov.bc.ca/library/publications/year/2002/MHA_Mental_Illness_Discrimination.pdf) identified four major stereotypes or emotional reactions to people with mental illnesses that lead to discrimination:

1) Fear: fear of violence and unpredictability, and fear of what mental illness

                represents in the way it attacks the faculties (emotions, thoughts, behaviours, self-concept) and the parts of us (the brain and mind) that define our very humanity.

2) Blame: the view that people with mental illnesses have brought their problems

                upon themselves.

3) Poor prognosis: the view that there is little hope for recovery from mental illness.

4) Disruption in social interaction: the view that people with mental illnesses are not easy to talk to and have poor social skills.”

 These attitudes can be found community wide. It is important to note that this can also include mental health services. Local research through “Respect Costs Nothing” backs up this view.

These attitudes can be found community wide. It is important to note that this can also include mental health services. Local research through “Respect Costs Nothing” backs up this view.

One of the key areas that mental health services can address is that of poor prognosis. It is essential that poor prognosis is replaced with hope of recovery. This is not just pie in the sky thinking. It is essential! As a mental health worker, you may have worked with someone who has been unwell for a long period and many different types of supports have been put in place with seemingly little positive change. You must never fall into the trap that the person has little hope of recovery. No one knows what the next day holds, let alone the next minute! There may be something that clicks for that person that steps them upward in their recovery. Hope is essential. Taking away hope is like a person being in a long dark tunnel and at the far end a person is holding onto a light which they extinguish. I was once told that I need to accept that I will never work fulltime again because of my own experience of mental illness. I have now been working fulltime for the last five years. Not bad eh?  Grant Cooper

(Grant is a Health Promoter with Like Minds and the Mental Health Foundation)