People with mental health problems often experience self-stigma, whereby they internalise stereotypic or stigmatising views held by others. Self-stigma is known to have negative effects on self-esteem and self-efficacy and a continuing impact on psychological wellbeing. Self-help interventions designed to reduce self-stigma may have an important contribution to make. This review aimed to provide an overview and critical appraisal of the literature on self-help interventions that target self-stigma related to mental health problems. A systematic review of five electronic databases (PsycINFO, MEDLINE, CINAHL Plus, Scopus and EMBASE) was carried out to identify articles published between January 2007 and July 2019. Eight articles that reported on self-help interventions for self-stigma were identified and evaluated using a combination of quality appraisal and narrative synthesis.

Mental health professionals with lived experience often experience heightened stigma and fear that their competency may be questioned. We present a new intervention (HOP-MHP) designed to support them in decisions about sharing their lived experience and preliminary results regarding the intervention’s acceptability and feasibility.