Stigma and discrimination of people with mental health issues among adolescents

Abstract

Introduction: According to the National Program of Mental Health for 2012-2016 in Republic of Moldova the process of deinstitutionalization, decentralization and reorganization of the mental health system is enhanced, in order to bring mental health services to the community and to facilitate inclusion of people with mental disabilities in society. Based on examples from countries with high socio-economic level the deinstitutionalization process began much earlier, about 40-50 years ago, and one of the major problems which made this process more difficult was the high stigma and discrimination against them. However in Moldova stigma and discrimination against people with mental disabilities in society is poorly studied. Purpose and objectives: To evaluate stigma and discrimination against people with mental disabilities among adolescents, to determine the causes and conditions in which this stigma and discrimination occur among adolescents. Materials and methods: The study is made in 3 schools from Chişinău, Bălţi and Orhei cities, in each school were included 25 students, total 75 adolescents. To evaluate stigma among adolescents the AQ-8-C test was administered, elaborated by Corrigan (2005). To evaluate discrimination the adolescents were interviewed using semi-structured questionnaire. Results: In the study was determined that the low level of acceptance towards the people with mental health issues is largely determined by the prejudices in society regarding these persons. Therefore, 57 (from 75) o f participants consider that children with mental disorders should be educated in special schools, 46 believe that people with mental health issues are unable to work, 44 think that these persons are dangerous and should be isolated, 21 consider that people with disabilities may not have family. Stereotypes frequently found in our society towards people with mental health problems are - debilitated, unable to work, dangerous, to be isolated, may not have family, sinful, poor. Conclusion: In Republic of Moldova were performed very few studies with reference to stigma against people with mental health problem, however our study shows that level of stigma is very high among adolescents - 76% of interviewed adolescents don’t want to study together with mentally ill people; 59% believe that these persons are dangerous and should be isolated; 28% think that society has to prohibit these persons to create families. To have a genuine inclusion of persons suffering from mental disorders in the community, the society needs to be educated in order to reduce stigma and discrimination against these persons.