The stigma of mental health professionals towards users with a mental disorder

Abstract

Introduction

Individuals with mental disorders are labeled in such a way that it leads to stigmatization. This generates a disadvantage as regards to the rest of the members of the society, limiting their participation as active members within it and at the same time being deleterious to their way of life. Mental health professionals are not safe from internalizing these stereotypes and prejudices assumed from their environment, thereby showing stigmatizing attitudes and behaviors towards the users in the different mental health resources.

Methodology

The design used in this study to determine the stigma of mental health professionals is a quantitative study, which was used to analyze the level of stigma presented by professionals using the Attribution Questionnaire-27 (AQ27). The sample consisted of 59 professionals.

Results

The results obtained showed the existence of stigmatizing attitudes and behaviors by the professionals analyzed. Within the sociodemographic data of the sample, it should be noted that the higher level of education of the professionals decreased the attitudes and behaviors associated to stigma.

Conclusions

It was possible to confirm the existence of different stigma factors such as helping, coercion, pity and avoidance that affect mental health professionals.