Stigma towards mental illnesses is one of the greatest barriers to the recovery of a mentally ill person and is pervasive throughout many aspects of society. It stops mentally ill people from being able to exercise often the most simplest of their human rights, prevents them from living a dignified life, and sometimes even stops them getting treatment.

Stigma is displayed by many different groups of people.

Local communities and even family members can stigmatise mentally ill people as ignorance about the true nature of mental illnesses lead to misplaced traditional beliefs. The most common of these is that mental illnesses are due to bad spirits or demons. This belief in particularly prevalent in India (even among the educated middle classes) and therefore the first stop for mentally ill people is often to the faith healer.

Stigma by local communities can range from name calling to far worse things, such as being ejected from the home by the family. Isolation is often common as well, as many people believe that mental illnesses are contagious so they refuse to touch the person or anything the person touches for fear of contamination.

Zainabu Shabani lives in Dar es Salaam, the capital of Tanzania. She suffered terribly from the stigma of her local community towards her schizophrenia. When her condition was at its worse, she wandered the streets naked. She said, “When I was walking naked people stole my clothes and money. They laughed at me and called me names. Even when their children threw stones at me they did not stop them. Even some of my relatives stopped visiting me because they were afraid and ashamed of me.”

People often believe that mentally ill people cannot make a contribution to their families and communities and that they cannot get better. This often leads to them being mistreated and abused. Sometimes mentally ill people are chained up, as people cannot see any way to control their sometimes violent behaviour.

Stigma is often displayed in policies and in the medical profession.

Mental health care is dramatically under-funded in many countries because mental health is stigmatised. Many countries spend less than 1% of their health budget on mental health care, when mental illnesses comprise 12% of the burden of illness.

Also, many psychiatrists and psychiatric nurses are stigmatised. People believe that mental health care workers contract the illness from their patients. They often have to occupy substandard office and practice space as health administrators don’t regard psychiatry as a proper discipline. This view means that not many students want to enter the psychiatric profession.

Sometimes, psychiatrists can be sceptical about what mentally ill people can do and display stigma in their approach to working with mentally ill people. For example, one psychiatrist could not believe that mentally ill people could take part in a data analysis workshop.

It is a long battle to eradicate stigma. We find the best way to get rid of it is to demonstrate to people the change that mentally ill people can undergo. Once they get treatment and are stabilised and they can either start to make a contribution in the home or get a job and bring back an income, stigma rapidly melts away.