engleski

It is hard to be different, but sometimes it is even harder: Research on stigmatization of people with mental illness and physical handicap

Psychiatric patients, as well as handicapped persons, face not only difficulties related to their primary illness, but also face the difficulties that emerge from the social stigmatization arround them. Discriminatory behaviors such as health-care restrictions, less educational rights and problems with employment are just a few examples of a wide variety of acts that threathen both the physical and mental health of stigmatized people. Stigmatization lowers their self-esteem, leads to their isolation and loneliness, and could make the treatment of their primary illness even more difficult. The intention of our research was focus on stigmatized individuals in our society, people whose quality of life is lower and whose basic human rights are often ignored, just because they are somehow different than those whom society perceives as “ normal” . Although more social groups were addressed, in this paper we focus on two types of socially stigmatizing illness: mental illness and physical handicap. With the purpose of assessing the cognitive schema of those two groups that exists in our society today we assessed stereotypes, beliefs, attributions and attitudes toward them in the sample of 722 pupils, students and adult citizens of Zagreb. In order to uncover the problems and difficulties that burden those stigmatized persons, we conducted several focus-groups with the members of those social groups, members of their families, and the professionals who treat them. Our results show a great difference between how these two categories of patients are perceived by others. There is a widly accepted negative stereotype about mentally ill people, and a more vague and less negative stereotype of handicapped people. Although attitudes toward both social groups vary from neutral to positive, their acceptance is different: less social distance is demonstrated toward handicapped people, than towards psychiatric patients. The results also show that the more other people know about the members of these groups, they express more positive attitudes toward them. Focus-groups revealed the need for better understanding and realization of basic human rights, and the members of both categories find the solution in better education of other people about them and their capabilities and difficulties.

stigmatization; mental illness; physical handicap

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