The Impact Of Stigma On People With Mental Health And Developmental Disabilities

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Stigma on People with Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities
Introduction
Have you ever wondered what it takes to be stigmatized? Have you ever faced an instance of social discrimination within your community as observed in the unwillingness of people associating with others as a result of their mental illnesses? Well these are the atrocities that stigmatized individuals encounter. In other words, stigma in the form of social distancing is associated with the unwillingness to associate with mentally ill individuals.
Stigma has the capacity to pervade the lives and well-being of people, especially those suffering from mental health problems in several ways. In other words, stigma diminishes an individual’s self-esteem, thus robbing them of their social opportunities such as employment. This therefore includes the denial of opportunities that include employment or accommodation as a result of illness. This paper therefore seeks to conduct a study on the impact of stigma on people suffering from mental health and developmental challenges.
* Impact of Stigma on People with Mental Health Issues
According to Abiri et al, several research reports report that social discrimination and stigma remains at the apex of several societies, thus giving an account of acts that range from verbal to physical attacks by strangers and neighbors on individuals who are mentally and developmentally disabled (265). Reports also indicate that such individuals are harmed by public labeling as mentally inadequate and ill in several ways. Prejudice, stereotyping, and discrimination is therefore considered as an aspect that robs people labeled as mentally unstable of their opportunities that are essential in achieving their life goals.
On the other hand, stigma is also influenced by the interfaces between criminal justice systems and mental illnesses. The criminalization of mentally ill individuals occurs when the law enforces rather than the approved mental health systems respond to mental health emergences and crises, an aspect that contributes to the increase in the prevalence of individuals with mental health issues in juvenile systems (Abiri et al 266).
* Stigma in Employment
According to Fowler, individuals suffering from mental health problems are prone to experience di...