Together, We Are Changing Thoughts About Mental Illness
McLean Hospital Guest Blogger
Scott L. Rauch, MD
I am pleased to introduce you to Deconstructing Stigma: A Change in Thought Can Change a Life. This public awareness campaign was developed by McLean Hospital in an effort to spark conversation not only about behavioral and mental health but also about the stigma that surrounds it.
While we always had great aspirations for this project, we could never have predicted how moving it would be--both for the hospital staff who devoted their time and expertise as well as for the featured volunteers who trusted us with telling their stories. Together, in a true partnership between McLean, our partner organizations, and the campaign participants, we created Deconstructing Stigma, and together, we are changing attitudes about behavioral and mental health conditions.
Shame and stigma are still far too prevalent when it comes to psychiatric disease. There should be no shame in having a mental illness , but the stigma that surrounds these conditions contributes to the fear and isolation that individuals and their families feel far too often. What we all must come to understand is that essentially every one of us is affected by mental illness in some way, whether by living with an illness ourselves or grappling with its consequences in a friend or loved one.
Told through a series of larger-than-life photographs of people who have been affected by psychiatric conditions, Deconstructing Stigma boldly challenges the misconceptions regarding...
Source: Healthy Living - The Huffington Post - Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news