Written Off
Mental Health Stigma and the Loss of Human Potential

This book tells the story of why and how mental health stigma impacts all of us.

Philip T. Yanos (Author)

9781107196957, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 11 January 2018

222 pages, 19 b/w illus. 2 tables
23.5 x 16 x 1.5 cm, 0.46 kg

'This book is a rich garden for understanding stigma, encouraging creative thinking regarding addressing it, and engaging one's own story in a narrative that is a deepening of one's parenthood. This is the new manual for navigating the currents of mental health stigma.' Steven A. Ingram, Voices

Written-Off tells the story of how mental health stigma comes to have a profound impact on the lives of people diagnosed with mental illnesses. It reviews theory, research, and history - illustrated with a multitude of personal stories - in four major areas. These areas are: the prevalence and predictors of negative attitudes and behaviors toward mental illness, the impact of community attitudes and behaviors on the self-perceptions of people diagnosed with mental illness, the impact of self-perceptions on the community participation of people diagnosed with mental illness, and how to change self-perceptions through a variety of approaches.

1. Why stigma matters
2. Does mental health stigma really exist?
3. What does stigma look like?
4. Who stigmatizes?
5. Responses to stigma among people diagnosed with a mental illness
6. Discredited: the impact of self-stigma on identity and community participation
7. Stigma by association: the impact of stigma on family members and professionals
8. The possibility of change: peer-led options
9. The possibility of change and interventions: professional options
10. Where do we go from here?

Subject Areas: Family & health [VF], Clinical psychology [MMJ], Psychiatry [MMH], Mental health services [MBPK], Health systems & services [MBP], Health psychology [MBNH9], Personal & public health [MBNH]