Accessible Mental Health Care Is Available, Approachable, and Affordable

Board of Directors’ Column: (de)Stigmatization of Mental Illness and Mental Health Care

“…Structural stigma mainly reflects cultural standards, social circumstances, or formalized practices and policies (organizational and/or political) that disenfranchise those who are stigmatized (Hatzenbuehler & Link, 2014). For those with mental health challenges, structural stigma includes unfair hiring practices which limit employment opportunities, "diagnostic overshadowing" which compromises adequate care, and the underfunding, fragmentation, and poor reimbursement for mental health care that impairs access to providers and needed treatments (Atkins et al, 2020;Brouwers, 2020;Charette-Dussault & Corbière, 2019;Hampson et al, 2020;Livingston, 2020;Okoli, 2023a).…”