Corrigan Patrick W. - Challenging the Stigma of Mental Illness: Lessons for Therapists and Advoca

Challenging the Stigma of Mental Illness

This book starts with a personal approach to stigma especially its horrendous consequences for individuals and families and ends with the important pronouncement that stigma is an example of social injustice. Along the way, it provides conceptually driven yet highly practical and useable strategies for combating stigma at multiple levels. An invaluable resource for anyone interested in countering the huge issue of mental illness stigma; bravo!

Stephen Hinshaw, Professor and Chair, Department of Psychology, University of California, USA

This is a book for everyone for our patients, healthcare professionals and the general public. The issues surrounding stigma are raised without underestimating complexity, while still making the concepts understandable. Challenging the Stigma of Mental Illness explores the promising pathways, as well as those that will have unintended consequences. It ends, as all books on this subject should, with a rallying call for parity for those with mental illness.

Til Wykes , Professor of Clinical Psychology and Rehabilitation, Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, UK

This edition first published 2011

2011 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Corrigan, Patrick W.

Challenging the stigma of mental illness : lessons for therapists and advocates / Patrick William Corrigan, David Roe, Hector W.H. Tsang.

p.; cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-0-470-68360-6 (cloth)

1. Mental illnessSocial aspects. 2. Mentally illPublic opinion. 3. Stigma (Social psychology) I. Roe, David, 1966- II. Tsang, Hector W. H. III. Title.

[DNLM: 1. Mental Disorderspsychology. 2. Mental Disorderstherapy. 3. Attitude to Health. 4. Mentally Ill Persons. 5. Prejudice. 6. Social Perception. WM 140]

RC455.C66 2011

362.196089dc22

2010035848

We dedicate this book to those fighting the good fight against stigma.

About the Authors

Patrick W. Corrigan is Professor and Associate Dean for Research at the Institute of Psychology, Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago. Prior to that, Corrigan was Professor of Psychiatry and Executive Director of the University of Chicago Center for Psychiatric Rehabilitation for 14 years. Dr. Corrigan has spent most of his career working to provide and evaluate services for people with psychiatric disabilities and their families. Realizing that the effects of psychiatric rehabilitation are limited by mental illness stigma, he has spent the past decade broadening his research agenda to include the prejudice and discrimination of mental illness. His work has been supported by NIMH for much of this time to, among other things, develop and lead the Chicago Consortium for Stigma Research; he is its principal investigator. Recently, the Consortium evolved into a national collection of researchers with support from an NIMH developing center grant. The National Consortium includes colleagues from Yale, UPENN, and Rutgers. Corrigan has authored more than 250 journal articles and 10 books. He is also editor-in-chief of the American Journal of Psychiatric Rehabilitation .

David Roe is Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Community Mental Health, Faculty of Social Welfare and Health Sciences, University of Haifa, Israel. His research focuses on the psychosocial processes of recovery from serious mental illness and the evaluation of psychiatric rehabilitation interventions and services. Dr. Roe's research has been funded by local and international sources, including NIMH, The Israeli Ministry of Health, The Israel National Institute for Health Services Research and Health Policy, the Israeli National Insurance Institution, and the Tauber and Rich foundations. Dr. Roe has published nearly 100 peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters. He serves on the editorial board of the Psychiatric Rehabilitation Journal , American Journal of Psychiatric Rehabilitation , and the Israel Journal of Psychiatry and Related Sciences .

Hector W.H. Tsang is Professor and Program Director of the BSc(Hons) for Occupational Therapy at the Department of Rehabilitation Sciences, the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. His research interests focus on supported employment, social and independent living skills training, and stigma pertaining to people with psychiatric disabilities. His research on social skills in the workplace won the Best Cross-regional Case Study Award in 1996 at the XIVth International Conference on the Social Sciences and Medicine organized by the International Forum for Social Sciences in Health (IFSSH), Scotland, UK. Prof. Dr. Tsang has received research grants from various local and international funding bodies, including the Research Grants Council, Quality Education Fund, Health and Health Services Research Grants, and NIMH. In 2007, he spent a sabbatical at Yale focusing his research on neurocognition and schizophrenia. He has published more than 100 peer-reviewed journal articles and co-authored 15 books. Prof. Dr. Tsang is now serving as editorial member or reviewer for prestigious journals such as Schizophrenia Bulletin , Schizophrenia Research , Psychiatry Research , American Journal of Occupational Therapy , and American Journal Psychiatric Rehabilitation .

Foreword

It's satisfying that Corrigan, Roe, and Tsang understand that mental illness stigma should be reduced to the personal story. True, stigma cuts a wide swath on certain issues such as insurance parity, the bias of media reporting, and employment and housing discrimination. But Corrigan and colleagues understand that it is in the world of stories, down to the individual person, and to the individual event, that stigma comes into sharp focus.