Training Teleconference - September 26, 2007
Countering Internalized Stigma among People with Mental Illnesses
Teleconference Presentation [PDF Format – 6Mb]
Teleconference Presentation [PowerPoint Format - 2Mb]
Please choose to save the presentation file you select to your computer before opening it. Allow for extra processing time when opening large files.
Stigma surrounding mental illnesses comes from many sources. Public stigma is a result of the general population’s misconceptions about mental illnesses. Internalized stigma - the belief that you are weak or damaged because of your own illness - occurs when individuals assimilate social stereotypes about themselves as persons with serious mental illnesses.
Internalized stigma, like public stigma, negatively affects the lives of people with mental illnesses and hinders the recovery process. Internalized stigma can sometimes be the most difficult kind of stigma to fight. It may cause people to stop their treatment, isolate themselves from loved ones, or give up on things they want to do.
This training will:
- Explore the different types of internalized stigma and factors that may lead to internalized stigma.
- Address how internalized stigma impacts the recovery process.
- Provide an overview of successful strategies that have been used to recognize and counter internalized stigma.
Amy Watson, Ph.D., Assistant Professor at the Jane Addams College of Social Work, University of Illinois at Chicago
Amy Watson is on the faculty of the Jane Addams College of Social Work at the University of Illinois at Chicago, where she teaches in the Mental Health Concentration. She is also an active member and former Project Director of Chicago Consortium for Stigma Research (CCSR), an interdisciplinary group of researchers dedicated to studying mental illness stigma, its consequences, and strategies for attitude change. Her research focuses on stigma as a barrier to accessing mental health services and the influence of mental illness stigma on how people are processed through the criminal justice system. Her current NIMH-funded research studies include one examining the experiences of persons with mental illness who have come in contact with police, and another that seeks to understand how youth with mental health problems who are involved with the juvenile justice make sense of their dual labels and systems involvement.
Robert Lundin, Director, The Awakenings Review
Robert Lundin became ill with psychosis and depression while a student at Vanderbilt University in the 1970s. He showed signs of mania and psychosis for years after that, but eventually responded well to medications. He worked as a freelance journalist for the Chicago Tribune in the early 1990s, then as a research assistant at the University of Chicago in the 1990s and 2000s. Lundin also worked recently as a case manager for Evanston Northwestern Healthcare. Over the years, stigma has weighed heavily on Lundin and he has written about it in a book he co-authored with Patrick Corrigan, and in "The Mind Will Follow" published in Schizophrenia Bulletin. Lundin is also the founder of the Awakenings Project, an arts group for people with mental illness, and editor of their literary magazine, "The Awakenings Review."
Patricia E. Deegan, Ph.D.
Patricia E. Deegan, Ph.D. is an activist in the disability rights movement, a writer, lecturer and researcher. Pat is also an independent consultant with Pat Deegan & Associates, LLC and an adjunct professor at Sargent College of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences at Boston University. She has many published papers, some of which have been translated into 9 languages. Pat has lectured on the topics of self-directed recovery and empowerment around the world, and has made three films on disability related topics. Pat's current projects include developing software to support shared decision-making in psychiatry, researching a recovery-based approach to using psychiatric medications in collaboration with the University of Kansas, developing recovery-based workforce trainings for mental health practitioners, helping to restore forgotten cemeteries at state hospitals, helping consumers win money for new housing through the sale of state hospitals and developing technical assistance materials for people affected by the U.S. Supreme Court's Olmstead Decision. Pat has lived her own journey of recovery, having first been diagnosed with schizophrenia as a teenager. She received her doctorate in clinical psychology from Duquesne University.