A SOCIAL INNOVATION ADDRESSING MENTAL HEALTH STIGMA AMONG EMERGING CLINICIANS— “AWARENESS IS CHANGE: A MENTAL HEALTH STIGMA TRAINING”
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2022-08
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Abstract
Prior literature has suggested that mental health stigma affects access and quality of services provided by clinicians to individuals diagnosed with mental health disorders and results in marginalized communities being undertreated and overdiagnosed. Although the existing body of literature has confirmed the existence of mental health stigma among clinicians, limited research has established interventions conducive to addressing and reducing the expression of mental health stigma among clinicians. This study used the conceptual framework of community-based participatory research, informed by social learning theory and self-determination theory, to understand the social problem of mental health stigma and propose the developed innovation, “Awareness is Change: A Mental Health Stigma Training,” as an intervention to support early exposure to stigma among emerging clinicians in graduate-level studies. Through early exposure to mental health stigma, the goal of the training is to increase opportunities for emerging clinicians to identify and address mental health stigma, so as to reduce its impact on the communities served. This research involved creating a thorough evaluation plan to identify the effectiveness of the training and support future dissemination efforts. Suggestions for future directions related to mental health stigma among clinicians include policy changes to further encourage mental health stigma training as part of professional development, longitudinal studies to identify the impact of mental health stigma training received by clinicians on the quality of services provided, and finally, exploring additional methods to support clinicians in addressing mental health stigma who are already established in professional roles providing direct services.
Description
A capstone project submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Social Work
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Keywords
Social Work, Mental Health