Civil Law of Stigma Discrimination and Prejudice †Free Samples

Question: Discuss about the Stigma Discrimination and Prejudice. Answer: Corrigan, (2016) explains that discrimination refers to unjust or unfair treatment towards a person on a thing or some status based on social factors such as race, gender and health condition among other factors. Prejudice on the other hand refers an opinion that is held by people that is not actually based on actual evidence or experience. Prejudice mainly results from preconceived myths, misconceptions and stereotypes. Stigma is commonly known to be disgrace that is expressed to people due to unfair circumstances affecting them. This paper explores stigma, discrimination and prejudice towards people with mental health conditions. Some of the major prejudicial attitudes and discrimination towards people with mental health issues fear and avoidance, incompetency and benevolence. In a bid to examine fear and an avoidance attitude, it is clear that people with mental health conditions are sometimes engaged in dangerous activities. Many communities thus tend to associate people with mental health issues with some of these dangerous involvements. Associating these people with dangerous activities then makes many people avoid interacting and associating with such people with mental health conditions. According to Parcesepe and Cabassa, (2013) incompetency is another major perspective that is held by many people towards people with mental health issues. This incompetency ranges from inability to make sound decisions and judgments, in various aspects of life such as budgeting for their finances and also doing personal duties. People with this prejudice tend to form an authoritarian attitude to those people claiming that they cant manage their lives. This makes these people to treat people with mental health issues with suspicion who in turn lead to limitation of their freedom and rights. Boyd, Otilingam, and DeForge, (2014) benevolence refers to the prejudice of making people with mental health illnesses as children who require care and attention. This is linked with a belief of very little or no hope of recovery in the patient. This in turn yields sympathy to people with such illnesses and a general belief of the incapability that one is really exposed to. People with this prejudice towards mental health patients tend to treat them with a lot of suspicion, excessive pity and a feeling that they are burdened to lead these patients and cater for everything in their entire lives. Causes of stigma There are several causes of stigma both from the individual and from the society an individual patient comes from. In other words, a patient may have low self esteem due to the various prejudices that are associated with mental health conditions. esteem issues in an individual and lack of self acceptance may cause someone to struggle with esteem and cause stigma where an individual excludes themselves from others and often encloses themselves due to fear of associating with others and being treated as mad or raise benevolent concerns among the people (Gela and Corrigan, 2014). Various religions such as Christianity and Islam have more than often associated sicknesses and suffering as a consequence of sin and failure to heed to the religion decrees and practices. As a matter of fact, mental health is seen as a curse and more closely, Christians usually elude mental health illnesses with the possession of demons. This plays a vital role in the creation of stigma towards people with the mental health. Carter, Shimkets and Bornemann, (2014) in some traditional communities, mental health illnesses have also had various stereotypes and prejudices regarding mental health illnesses. Some of the major stereotypes in the traditional setup include deficiencies. People with mental health illnesses are seen as incomplete and lacking in socialization skills, societal values and traditions. Traditionalists have also seen mental health patients as to be possessed with evil spirits. There are also several prejudices that associate the illnesses with sin. These have argued that mental health illnesses are a punishment from the gods due to misconduct towards the community. Lack of moral and ethical standards are also characterized as some of the major causes of these prejudicial beliefs that cause stigma to mental health patients. Pescosolido, (2013) has argued that Illiteracy and lack of sufficient education is also a major cause of stigma where individuals have little or no knowledge about the mental health conditions. Many individuals are ignorant about attending to learn and research on mental health conditions and tend to perpetuate and spread ideas related to prejudice and stereotype. As a matter of fact, some people fail to recognize mental health illness as related to health and still relate it to cultural concerns and base explanations of cause and effect that is caused by evil spirits. There are also people who actually understand health concerns of the illness but still tend to stereotype and provide base arguments to feed their assertions. Consequences of stigma Rogers and Pilgrim, (2014) explains that there are several consequences of stigma resulting both from self and public stigma. These consequences can be classified into physical, psychological and social consequences. Stigma is such a bad vice that causes people to feel hurt hated and it also forms other negative effects. In a bid to focus on the psychological effects of stigma, one may begin by saying that stigma causes fear in individuals where individuals fail to turn up to the general public and health centers to seek help fearing that they might be misunderstood and mistreated once people notice that they are suffering from mental health issues. Hatred is another psychological consequence of stigma on people with mental health illnesses. In major countries in the middle east and Asia, mental health illnesses is treated with a lot of suspicion and family members often fear disclosing their mental health conditions to the general public. In contrast, family members may tend to outcast the patient and disown him or her. The family members try to prevent associating with the patient. Lack of association with the patient may make the patient to develop withdrawal symptoms that makes the individual to become truant, withdrawn and the patient may even resolve to suicide as they dread hatred and being disowned by their family members. Koenig, and Eagly, (2014) the biggest social effect of stigma is discrimination. Discrimination may occur in major aspects of life that the person is involved with. A person may be denied access to services that he or she may qualify for such as jobs, leadership, judicial processes and social concerns. This comes about with the labeling that the people who have mental health illnesses are of unsound mind. This makes them to be seen as though incapacitated and lacking a level of intelligence that is necessary to live normally. Physical impacts of stigma may impact in the face of challenges that result from the consequences of psychological and social effects of stigma. These may take form of other illnesses that may develop due to lack of help and support to people with the illness. Individuals living on medication and suffering from mental illness may fail to take medication as required by the health officers and end up developing other conditions. Serious economic impacts can also result from stigma on mental health where it is costly to heal the society of neglected care, support and timely attention to people with mental health illnesses. Boyd, J. E., Adler, Otilingam and Peters, (2014) holds that a major economic concern is dependency which may stem up when a person finally becomes incapacitated or is exempted from family roles. The rest of his family members become dependent on the society and other organs for survival. This raises dependence levels weakening a countrys economy. Effects of stigma impact on the patients recovery According to Mestdagh and Hansen, (2014) effects of stigma cause consequences that impact to the patients recovery process. This manifests itself in the sense that patients as a consequence of stigma may develop worse conditions than the mental health due to lack of exposure and timely help. Patients who try to commit suicide may develop amnesia and other health and social conditions such as stress, trauma and depression. This requires the act of counselors in the healing process to intervene in order to help the patients to develop feelings self worth, self respect and appreciation of self. In the recovery of a mental health patient, stigma may also slow the process since stigma develops even in the healing process. This continued stigma may cause more stress and depression on the person which makes the person develop various other psychological disorders that slow the healing process in the individual. People may fail to really appreciate and recognize that one is healing or improving from the condition and continue stereotyping the individual which causes negative feelings towards the patient and their family. Health practitioners may also have a hard time dealing with a patient whose condition has worsened because of keeping silent about their conditions. Health officers may tend to complain to the patient and fail to show required love and concern to the patient. This makes the patients to develop negative feelings towards health workers and may often result to them developing even more serious conditions (Corrigan, 2015, November). In conclusion, stigma and prejudice are classified as the main challenge affecting the people living with mental health conditions. It is therefore necessary that people should make lots of efforts in order to eliminate prejudice in the society in order to help people with mental health illness to get the relevant attention to heal and enjoy lives. 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Gela, N. R., Corrigan, P. W. (2014). The stigma of families with mental illness.Family problems: Stress, risk, and resilience, 33. Koenig, A. M., Eagly, A. H. (2014). Extending role congruity theory of prejudice to men and women with sex-typed mental illnesses.Basic and Applied Social Psychology,36(1), 70-82.