Cargando…

Stakeholder perceptions of mental health stigma and poverty in Uganda

BACKGROUND: World wide, there is plentiful evidence regarding the role of stigma in mental illness, as well as the association between poverty and mental illness. The experiences of stigma catalyzed by poverty revolve around experiences of devaluation, exclusion, and disadvantage. Although the relat...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Ssebunnya, Joshua, Kigozi, Fred, Lund, Crick, Kizza, Dorothy, Okello, Elialilia
Formato: Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2009
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2670268/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19335889
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1472-698X-9-5
_version_ 1782166299278835712
author Ssebunnya, Joshua
Kigozi, Fred
Lund, Crick
Kizza, Dorothy
Okello, Elialilia
author_facet Ssebunnya, Joshua
Kigozi, Fred
Lund, Crick
Kizza, Dorothy
Okello, Elialilia
author_sort Ssebunnya, Joshua
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: World wide, there is plentiful evidence regarding the role of stigma in mental illness, as well as the association between poverty and mental illness. The experiences of stigma catalyzed by poverty revolve around experiences of devaluation, exclusion, and disadvantage. Although the relationship between poverty, stigma and mental illness has been documented in high income countries, little has been written on this relationship in low and middle income countries. The paper describes the opinions of a range of mental health stakeholders regarding poverty, stigma, mental illness and their relationship in the Ugandan context, as part of a wider study, aimed at exploring policy interventions required to address the vicious cycle of mental ill-health and poverty. METHODS: Semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions (FGDs) were conducted with purposefully selected mental health stakeholders from various sectors. The interviews and FGDs were audio-recorded, and transcriptions were coded on the basis of a pre-determined coding frame. Thematic analysis of the data was conducted using NVivo7, adopting a framework analysis approach. RESULTS: Most participants identified a reciprocal relationship between poverty and mental illness. The stigma attached to mental illness was perceived as a common phenomenon, mostly associated with local belief systems regarding the causes of mental illness. Stigma associated with both poverty and mental illness serves to reinforce the vicious cycle of poverty and mental ill-health. Most participants emphasized a relationship between poverty and internalized stigma among people with mental illness in Uganda. CONCLUSION: According to a range of mental health stakeholders in Uganda, there is a strong interrelationship between poverty, stigma and mental illness. These findings re-affirm the need to recognize material resources as a central element in the fight against stigma of mental illness, and the importance of stigma reduction programmes in protecting the mentally ill from social isolation, particularly in conditions of poverty.
format Text
id pubmed-2670268
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2009
publisher BioMed Central
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-26702682009-04-18 Stakeholder perceptions of mental health stigma and poverty in Uganda Ssebunnya, Joshua Kigozi, Fred Lund, Crick Kizza, Dorothy Okello, Elialilia BMC Int Health Hum Rights Research article BACKGROUND: World wide, there is plentiful evidence regarding the role of stigma in mental illness, as well as the association between poverty and mental illness. The experiences of stigma catalyzed by poverty revolve around experiences of devaluation, exclusion, and disadvantage. Although the relationship between poverty, stigma and mental illness has been documented in high income countries, little has been written on this relationship in low and middle income countries. The paper describes the opinions of a range of mental health stakeholders regarding poverty, stigma, mental illness and their relationship in the Ugandan context, as part of a wider study, aimed at exploring policy interventions required to address the vicious cycle of mental ill-health and poverty. METHODS: Semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions (FGDs) were conducted with purposefully selected mental health stakeholders from various sectors. The interviews and FGDs were audio-recorded, and transcriptions were coded on the basis of a pre-determined coding frame. Thematic analysis of the data was conducted using NVivo7, adopting a framework analysis approach. RESULTS: Most participants identified a reciprocal relationship between poverty and mental illness. The stigma attached to mental illness was perceived as a common phenomenon, mostly associated with local belief systems regarding the causes of mental illness. Stigma associated with both poverty and mental illness serves to reinforce the vicious cycle of poverty and mental ill-health. Most participants emphasized a relationship between poverty and internalized stigma among people with mental illness in Uganda. CONCLUSION: According to a range of mental health stakeholders in Uganda, there is a strong interrelationship between poverty, stigma and mental illness. These findings re-affirm the need to recognize material resources as a central element in the fight against stigma of mental illness, and the importance of stigma reduction programmes in protecting the mentally ill from social isolation, particularly in conditions of poverty. BioMed Central 2009-03-31 /pmc/articles/PMC2670268/ /pubmed/19335889 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1472-698X-9-5 Text en Copyright ©2009 Ssebunnya et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Research article
Ssebunnya, Joshua
Kigozi, Fred
Lund, Crick
Kizza, Dorothy
Okello, Elialilia
Stakeholder perceptions of mental health stigma and poverty in Uganda
title Stakeholder perceptions of mental health stigma and poverty in Uganda
title_full Stakeholder perceptions of mental health stigma and poverty in Uganda
title_fullStr Stakeholder perceptions of mental health stigma and poverty in Uganda
title_full_unstemmed Stakeholder perceptions of mental health stigma and poverty in Uganda
title_short Stakeholder perceptions of mental health stigma and poverty in Uganda
title_sort stakeholder perceptions of mental health stigma and poverty in uganda
topic Research article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2670268/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19335889
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1472-698X-9-5
work_keys_str_mv AT ssebunnyajoshua stakeholderperceptionsofmentalhealthstigmaandpovertyinuganda
AT kigozifred stakeholderperceptionsofmentalhealthstigmaandpovertyinuganda
AT lundcrick stakeholderperceptionsofmentalhealthstigmaandpovertyinuganda
AT kizzadorothy stakeholderperceptionsofmentalhealthstigmaandpovertyinuganda
AT okelloelialilia stakeholderperceptionsofmentalhealthstigmaandpovertyinuganda