Stigma worsens mental illness

A newspaper (MindYourBody) article from a few months (Jan 2007) back. My own views are placed below of the article.

========================================================
Stigma worsens mental illness

By Shefali Srinivas -
The Straits Times

A steady, simple job and acceptance from people are top of the wishlist for patients recovering from mental illnesses. But these very things are in short supply and have significant impact on whether the road to recovery is rocky or smooth.

Even though mental illness can strike any one at any age - people with these conditions face fear, hostility and disapproval rather than compassion, support and understanding.

This stigma and the role it plays in mental illness was the subject of a recently concluded study at Institute of Mental Health (IMH) in Singapore.

Nurse educator Poh Chee Lien, who was involved in the study, said the aim was to find out the extent to which patients encountered stigma and if they had any strategies to deal with it.

While the study results are yet to be published, it was conducted by nurses who looked specifically at schizophrenia and the stigma that recovering schizophrenics face.

For the full article, refer to the link below
Stigma worsens mental illness

======================================================

In one of the last few lines of the article, Prof Chong said "'You can gauge how civilised a society is by the way they treat their mentally ill." I would say, we can gauge how gracious and how kind/unkind a society is by the way they treat the mentally ill.

Those who go through mental illnesses are treated as outcasts. Yet I find myself seeing that their discrimination comes from their fears of what they do not understand. For a society like Singapore, it can be rather difficult to accept that we actually are still so ignorant, filled with so much misperceptions and intolerance. Yet as mentioned, in all honest truth, can we blame them? I don't think we can or should. For it is all too human for us to fear the unknown. What then can be done to fight the stigma? What can we do more to spread understanding and awareness.

How much are we all as part of society doing our part in listening?

I hope to see the day where mental illness sufferers here can be treated with more kindness, understanding and acceptance.