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A qualitative study on the stigma experienced by people with mental health problems and epilepsy in the Philippines
BACKGROUND: Stigma towards people with mental health problems (PMHP) is known to have substantial negative impacts on their lives. More in-depth exploration of the stigma and discrimination experienced by PMHP in low- and middle-income countries is needed. Previous research suggests that negative at...
Autores principales: | , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
BioMed Central
2018
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6173886/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30290782 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12888-018-1902-9 |
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author | Tanaka, Chika Tuliao, Maria Teresa Reyes Tanaka, Eizaburo Yamashita, Tadashi Matsuo, Hiroya |
author_facet | Tanaka, Chika Tuliao, Maria Teresa Reyes Tanaka, Eizaburo Yamashita, Tadashi Matsuo, Hiroya |
author_sort | Tanaka, Chika |
collection | PubMed |
description | BACKGROUND: Stigma towards people with mental health problems (PMHP) is known to have substantial negative impacts on their lives. More in-depth exploration of the stigma and discrimination experienced by PMHP in low- and middle-income countries is needed. Previous research suggests that negative attitudes towards PMHP are widespread among the Filipino general public. However, no study has investigated PMHP’s own experiences of being stigmatised in the Philippines. METHODS: A qualitative study was conducted on the stigma experienced by PMHP (including people with epilepsy) and its related factors in the Philippines, employing the constructivist grounded theory approach. We analysed data on 39 PMHP collected through interviews with PMHP, their carers, and community health volunteers who know them well. RESULTS: The findings highlight the culturally and socio-economically specific contexts, consequences, and impact modifiers of experiences of stigma. Participants emphasised that PMHP face stigma because of the cultural traits such as the perception of mental health problem as a disease of the family and the tendency to be overly optimistic about the severity of the mental health problem and its impact on their life. Further, stigma was experienced under conditions where mental health care was not readily available and people in the local community could not resolve the PMHP’s mental health crisis. Stigma experiences reduced social networks and opportunities for PMHP, threatened the economic survival of their entire family, and exacerbated their mental health problems. An individual’s reaction to negative experiences can be fatalistic in nature (e.g. believing in it is God’s will). This fatalism can help PMHP to remain hopeful. In addition, traditional communal unity alleviated some of the social exclusion associated with stigma. CONCLUSIONS: The study indicates that existing stigma-reduction strategies might have limitations in their effectiveness across cultural settings. Therefore, we propose context-specific practical implications (e.g. emphasis on environmental factors as a cause of mental health problems, messages to increase understanding not only of the possibility of recovery but also of challenges PMHP face) for the Philippines. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1186/s12888-018-1902-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-6173886 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2018 |
publisher | BioMed Central |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-61738862018-10-15 A qualitative study on the stigma experienced by people with mental health problems and epilepsy in the Philippines Tanaka, Chika Tuliao, Maria Teresa Reyes Tanaka, Eizaburo Yamashita, Tadashi Matsuo, Hiroya BMC Psychiatry Research Article BACKGROUND: Stigma towards people with mental health problems (PMHP) is known to have substantial negative impacts on their lives. More in-depth exploration of the stigma and discrimination experienced by PMHP in low- and middle-income countries is needed. Previous research suggests that negative attitudes towards PMHP are widespread among the Filipino general public. However, no study has investigated PMHP’s own experiences of being stigmatised in the Philippines. METHODS: A qualitative study was conducted on the stigma experienced by PMHP (including people with epilepsy) and its related factors in the Philippines, employing the constructivist grounded theory approach. We analysed data on 39 PMHP collected through interviews with PMHP, their carers, and community health volunteers who know them well. RESULTS: The findings highlight the culturally and socio-economically specific contexts, consequences, and impact modifiers of experiences of stigma. Participants emphasised that PMHP face stigma because of the cultural traits such as the perception of mental health problem as a disease of the family and the tendency to be overly optimistic about the severity of the mental health problem and its impact on their life. Further, stigma was experienced under conditions where mental health care was not readily available and people in the local community could not resolve the PMHP’s mental health crisis. Stigma experiences reduced social networks and opportunities for PMHP, threatened the economic survival of their entire family, and exacerbated their mental health problems. An individual’s reaction to negative experiences can be fatalistic in nature (e.g. believing in it is God’s will). This fatalism can help PMHP to remain hopeful. In addition, traditional communal unity alleviated some of the social exclusion associated with stigma. CONCLUSIONS: The study indicates that existing stigma-reduction strategies might have limitations in their effectiveness across cultural settings. Therefore, we propose context-specific practical implications (e.g. emphasis on environmental factors as a cause of mental health problems, messages to increase understanding not only of the possibility of recovery but also of challenges PMHP face) for the Philippines. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1186/s12888-018-1902-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. BioMed Central 2018-10-05 /pmc/articles/PMC6173886/ /pubmed/30290782 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12888-018-1902-9 Text en © The Author(s). 2018 Open AccessThis article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated. |
spellingShingle | Research Article Tanaka, Chika Tuliao, Maria Teresa Reyes Tanaka, Eizaburo Yamashita, Tadashi Matsuo, Hiroya A qualitative study on the stigma experienced by people with mental health problems and epilepsy in the Philippines |
title | A qualitative study on the stigma experienced by people with mental health problems and epilepsy in the Philippines |
title_full | A qualitative study on the stigma experienced by people with mental health problems and epilepsy in the Philippines |
title_fullStr | A qualitative study on the stigma experienced by people with mental health problems and epilepsy in the Philippines |
title_full_unstemmed | A qualitative study on the stigma experienced by people with mental health problems and epilepsy in the Philippines |
title_short | A qualitative study on the stigma experienced by people with mental health problems and epilepsy in the Philippines |
title_sort | qualitative study on the stigma experienced by people with mental health problems and epilepsy in the philippines |
topic | Research Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6173886/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30290782 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12888-018-1902-9 |
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