Mental health anti-stigma campaign fails to shift health professionals' attitudes
A recent Guardian report on Time to Change's evaluation
People with mental health problems are experiencing less stigma and discrimination, but attitudes of health workers are not improving
The Time to Change campaign seems to have made an encouraging impact on attitudes towards mental illness in England. According to independent evaluation of the campaign's first four years, people with mental health problems are experiencing less stigma and discrimination, are feeling more empowered and are enjoying more social contact.
One group in society appears to be proving resistant to this positive influence, however. Extraordinarily, the evidence suggests that attitudes among mental health professionals are not improving in line with the general trend.
The evidence is based on responses from a telephone survey of a panel of 1,000 users of mental health services, conducted annually between 2008 and 2011. They were asked to report discrimination experienced on 21 different measures, ranging from keeping a job to use of transport.
While notable improvement was recorded over the four surveys on measures including discrimination by friends and by family, there was no comparable change in discrimination by mental health professionals: 34.3% of respondents reported such treatment in 2008, falling only slightly – and not statistically significantly - to 30.4% in 2011.
Here is one of the comments on this finding:
I do not relate to the findings of the evaluation given I see many people now very afraid to leave their homes, use community facilities, claim concessions where applicable if in receipt of any benefits because the political hatred towards anyone who is sick/disabled/unemployed/not working enough hours/securing a high enough salary to not need WTC/help with housing. Disability hate crimes are on the increase and this includes mental health service users [plus all those who can’t access a service or have been discharged because of cuts]. Political discrimination is the most virulent stigma of all and reflected within the disproportionate cuts and welfare/housing policies
The WCA assessment [and no doubt PIP] have descriptors more inclined towards learning disability not mental health. All the mental health charities have no desire to address political discrimination because like everyone else they are at the trough. Volunteers have sometimes been directly instructed to not speak of service and benefit cuts to the media on the grounds that it’s “political”. Others have been coy about their involvement with the Work Programme and even promoting Capita.
Discrimination is reflected within the charities and NHS services who wax lyrical with the Life Coach speak on the great ‘recovery’ everyone can achieve with minimal support and discharge asap otherwise people are “dependent”. Long term support has all but disappeared, it would hard to conceive of diabetic or respiratory deliberately services limiting access to their services or setting the bar so high that nothing short of coma or arrest would qualify assistance.
So of course mental health professionals are prejudiced, they are merely reflecting our elite political masters and toeing the line to keep their jobs. The ‘recovery model’ hasn’t helped with employment and discharge from services as the two main measures of it, this has been a gift and aided the cuts. Diagnosis doesn’t aid positive attitudes as everyone is aware of the diagnostic hierarchy and now care clusters is ever more diagnosis by numbers. This has always been around, but the drive to get people in and out of services asap [keeping as many as possible out], covering the cuts with mass discharges on the grounds of facilitating ‘recovery’ and lessening the risk of dependency has made matters worse. The cuts and ideology mean that we now have two tiers of service users – those who ‘recover’ either by their own definition, or by definition of discharge, and those who fail to recover who are now left with bugger all – a monthly depot injection, a PD group [even if that’s not their diagnosis because that’s one of the few longer term support structures left], and there’s little help for those who need assistance with benefit reviews. Little wonder the suicide rate is up for community users – what have they got? It’s either couriered medication by the Crisis Service [if accessed], or a CTO, or nothing. As for transport, most have lost their bus passes because mental health has been excluded from the qualifying criteria. This is all adds up to isolation, poverty, and little or no support.These anti-stigma campaigns are not only pointless they are insulting, that money could be put to better use – advocacy, [to replace what’s lost], legal aid, [to replace what’s lost], advice and representation [to replace what’s lost or now severely constrained], legal action to challenge what’s happening. It’s a fight now for people to hold onto income, housing, a shred of support [not even what they would chose], let alone derive much pleasure or progress in living. These anti-stigma campaigns are just a fig leaf for not doing what should be done – and everyone at the shit end of the stick knows it and balks at the sheer waste of millions which could have been used to save some lives by looking at the economic, social and political causations of distress.People are increasingly destined for Workfare or worse.