Psychiatric Rehabilitation Skills 

About: Psychiatric Rehabilitation Skills is an academic journal. The journal publishes majorly in the area(s): Psychiatric rehabilitation & Mental illness. It has an ISSN identifier of 1097-3435. Over the lifetime, 116 publications have been published receiving 1743 citations.

On Describing and Seeking to Change the Experience of Stigma

Abstract: The stigma of mental illness has been shown to be a strong negative feature in the lives of many people with mental illnesses and their families. As a consequence it makes sense to undertake efforts to reduce the negative impact of stigma on the lives of people who experience it. In keeping with this idea we set out to develop and evaluate an intervention designed to encourage successful coping with stigma. Specifically, we constructed measures designed to assess the experience of stigma and to develop a pilot intervention designed to interrupt some of the negative consequences of stigma. To achieve this goal we studied people attending a clubhouse program, randomly assigning participants to intervention and control groups in the context of pretest-postest design. In a unique feature we also followed up the participants two year following the pre-test when all participants had the opportunity to experience the intervention. We found that people perceive and experience stigma and that these percep...

Children's Views of Mental Illness: A Review of the Literature

Abstract: This paper reviews research since 1980 on children's knowledge of and attitudes toward mental illness. This research has involved many different methods, including use of vignettes, projective drawings, storytelling, and direct questioning. Findings suggest that younger children do have clear knowledge of what mental illness is and that their understanding becomes more sophisticated as they age. At the same time, however, even younger children have been found to view people with mental illnesses more negatively than they do other groups. A small literature on depiction of mental illnesses in children's media revealed negative portrayals that may contribute to children's attitudes. Numerous limitations of the research are described and further research is urged, with attention recommended to issues such as the impact of language in designating someone as having a mental health problem, possible differing reactions to peers and adults, and incorporation of the perspectives of children with mental d...

Newspaper coverage of mental illness: Is it changing?

Abstract: Because the public gets much of its knowledge of mental illness from the news media, it is important to understand what those media report about mental illnesses. It is also useful to know whether or not news coverage of mental illness is changing. The current study looked at 300 newspaper articles containing the key phrase “mental illness” from 6 different newspapers for 1989 and for 1999. Each article was read and rated with respect to a variety of elements, including what specific disorders were named, what the main themes of each article were, and what was the overall tone of the article. Results indicated that there was more coverage of issues of stigma and mental health insurance parity, fewer themes of dangerousness, and fewer articles with negative tone in 1999 than in 1989. However, dangerousness was still the most common theme of 1999 articles and negative articles were still twice as likely to occur as positive ones. Articles in 1999, as in 1989, tended not to name specific psychiatric...

Mental Illness Stereotypes and Clinical Care: Do People Avoid Treatment Because of Stigma?

Abstract: Despite evidence that pharmacological and psychosocial treatments yield significant benefits for many psychiatric disorders, many people who might otherwise profit from treatment fail to access care or do not fully adhere to services once they are begun. One interpretation of a health belief model suggests that the stigma of mental illness and corresponding treatments is a significant, perceived cost that undermines participation. Evidence that supports this assumption is reviewed in this paper. We begin with a brief summary of empirical models that describe stigma. We then review research studies that suggest how perceived stigma may undermine treatment participation. Despite the presence of a few studies that support the connection between stigma and treatment avoidance, research in this area is remarkably sparse, especially given assertions about the importance of this point in the Surgeon General's 1999 Report. Possible directions for future research are outlined as a result. Finally, we prov...

Genes and Stigma: The Connection Between Perceived Genetic Etiology and Attitudes and Beliefs About Mental Illness

Abstract: An increased emphasis on biological causes of mental illness has been viewed as having the potential to significantly reduce stigma. From this perspective, the current genetics revolution can be seen as a source of hope with regard to reducing stigma. However, theory and empirical research suggest that biological attributions may have complex effects for stigma, reducing it along some dimensions while magnifying it along others. In a sample of 56 residents of New York City and Los Angeles, we assess the relationship between respondents' belief that schizophrenia (as described in a vignette) is influenced by genetic factors and several stigma-related beliefs and attitudes about the vignette subject. We find that respondents who believe the problem may be influenced by genetics are less likely to think the person did anything to cause the problem but also less likely to think the person can improve with appropriate help and more likely to think other family members may develop the same problem. The...