The Cambridge Handbook of Stigma and Mental Health (Cambridge Handbooks in Psychology)

The persistence of stigma of mental illness and seeking therapy perpetuates suffering and keeps people from getting the help they need and deserve. This volume, analysing the most up-to-date research on this process and ways to intervene, is designed to give those who are working to overcome stigma a strong, research-based foundation for their work. Chapters address stigma reduction efforts at the individual, community, and national levels, and discuss what works and what doesn't. Others explore how holding different stigmatized identities compounds the burden of stigma and suggest ways to attend to these differences. Throughout, there is a focus on the current state of the research knowledge in the field, its applications, and recommendations for future research. The Handbook provides a compelling case for the benefits reaped from current research and intervention, and shows why continued work is needed. "Stigma can maintain discrimination and oppression and reduce compassion and understanding. In the area of mental illness and psychological help-seeking, stigma acts as a considerable barrier to recovery and adds additional burdens to be managed. This reality has led many different research groups to explore the workings of stigma and ways to intervene to help people who suffer from the stigma associated with mental health problems. We wanted to create a state-of-the-science source for the best research being done in this area and so we organized the Handbook of Stigma and Mental Health. This chapter provides an overview to the Handbook and the excellent research that is reviewed in it. In their chapters, the authors of the Handbook answer four important questions: "What are the forms of mental health stigma?"; "What are impacts of mental health stigma?"; "How can we develop interventions to reduce mental health stigma across contexts?"; "How can we understand the specific ways that mental health stigma impacts different groups (e.g., racial minorities, veterans)?" We hope that asking these questions will stimulate and drive more innovative research in the future"-- Provided by publisher.