Written Off Mental Health Stigma and the Loss of Human Potential [Hardcover]

This book tells the story of why and how mental health stigma impacts all of us.This book tells the story of how mental health stigma comes to have a profound impact on the lives of people diagnosed with mental illnesses. It goes beyond previous volumes by explaining how community attitudes and behaviors come to impact diagnosed individuals' self-images and their subsequent participation in community life.This book tells the story of how mental health stigma comes to have a profound impact on the lives of people diagnosed with mental illnesses. It goes beyond previous volumes by explaining how community attitudes and behaviors come to impact diagnosed individuals' self-images and their subsequent participation in community life.Written-Off tells the story of how mental health stigma comes to have a profound impact on the lives of people diagnosed with mental illnesses. It reviews theory, research, and history - illustrated with a multitude of personal stories - in four major areas. These areas are: the prevalence and predictors of negative attitudes and behaviors toward mental illness, the impact of community attitudes and behaviors on the self-perceptions of people diagnosed with mental illness, the impact of self-perceptions on the community participation of people diagnosed with mental illness, and how to change self-perceptions through a variety of approaches.1. Why stigma matters; 2. Does mental health stigma really exist?; 3. What does stigma look like?; 4. Who stigmatizes?; 5. Responses to stigma among people diagnosed with a mental illness; 6. Discredited: the impact of self-stigma on identity and community participation; 7. Stigma by association: the impact of stigma on family members and professionals; 8. The possibility of change: peer-led options; 9. The possibility of change and interventions: professional options; 10. Where do we go from here?'Mental health stigma is an issue of social injustice. Professor Yanos eloquently captures inequities wrought bl�