Self‐Stigma, Mental Health Literacy, and Health Outcomes in Integrated Care

Abstract

The authors describe research on the self‐stigma of mental illness and help seeking, mental health literacy, and health outcomes in an integrated care medical center. Results revealed that self‐stigma of mental illness and self‐stigma of seeking help had an inverse relationship with mental health literacy. No statistically significant relationships were found between health outcomes, either type of self‐stigma, and mental health literacy. The authors discuss these and other findings and offer research and counseling implications.

In My Own Words: Exploring Definitions of Mental Health in the Rural Southeastern United States

“…In fact, knowledge of mental health concerns is greatly lacking and largely ignored (Jorm, 2012). The most current study related to MHL found that MHL had a negative relationship to self-stigma of mental health concerns and help-seeking, signifying that when a person knows more information about mental health, they have less stigma about mental health concerns and engage in more helpseeking behaviors (Crowe et al, 2018). In this same study, health outcomes (i.e., blood pressure and body mass index) were assessed to test whether MHL was related to improved physical health.…”

“…The mental health provider provides services to many of the same patients who receive medical care at the office. This study was part of a larger, quantitative research investigation on mental health, mental health stigma, and MHL (Crowe et al, 2018). Because of the expansive nature of the dataset, however, this article only focuses on the qualitative components of the survey.…”

“…Because access to mental health services is often limited and/or non-existent in rural communities, counselors and related mental health professionals should be more intentional in implementing these forms of programming because of the large number of residents who reside in rural communities who have not yet been helped (El-Amin et al, 2018). Trainings such as this may assist with MHL, as well as mental health stigma, which has been associated with MHL in rural areas (Crowe et al, 2018).…”

“…Large scale quantitative studies might offer scholars interested in MHL the opportunity to use validated instruments to measure literacy and perceptions about mental health in rural samples. Assessments such as the Mental Health Knowledge Schedule (Evans-Lacko et al, 2010) have been used in recent research (Crowe et al, 2018) to measure mental health knowledge. The Revised Fit, Stigma, & Value Scale (Kalkbrenner & Neukrug, 2018) is another scale measuring barriers to counseling such as stigma, values, and personal fit.…”

“…Mental health literacy (MHL; Jorm, 2012), or the knowledge and beliefs about disorders that assist in the recognition, prevention, or management of a mental health concern, is one way those who are struggling with mental health concerns can manage mental illnesses more effectively. Improving MHL can have the capacity to positively impact negative attitudes, biases, or assumptions that are associated with having a mental illness as well as assist with help-seeking so those who have a mental illness will receive necessary treatment (Crowe, Mullen, & Littlewood, 2018;Jorm, 2012;Kutcher, Wei, & Coniglio, 2016). Researchers have consistently demonstrated that a stigma still exists toward seeking help for mental health concerns and that reducing that stigma is of utmost importance (Kalkbrenner & Neukrug, 2018).…”