"In some ways, mental illness is the final frontier of socially-acceptable discrimination." Agree or disagree?

Question

"Canadian attitudes toward mental illness are a cause for concern, the Canadian Medical Association said Monday in releasing its annual report card on health care.

The group's eighth annual report surveyed Canadians to measure attitudes and experiences with the health-care system.

"This year’s report card shines a harsh, and frankly unflattering, light on the attitudes we Canadians have concerning mental health," said the group's president, Dr. Brian Day, in a release.

"In some ways, mental illness is the final frontier of socially-acceptable discrimination."

The survey found:

- Almost half of Canadians, 46 per cent, think people use the term mental illness as an excuse for bad behaviour.

- One in four Canadians are fearful of being around those who suffer from serious mental illness.

- Half of Canadians would tell friends or coworkers that they have a family member with a mental illness, compared to 72 per cent for a diagnosis of cancer or 68 per cent for diabetes.

- Most Canadians, 61 per cent, would be unlikely to go to a family doctor with a mental illness, and 58 per cent would shy away from hiring a lawyer, child-care worker or financial adviser with the illness."

http://www.cbc.ca/health/story/2008/08/15/mental-health.html

Answer 1

Absolutely! The stigma around mental illnesses is sickening and really prevents people getting the very simple, easy help they need to improve their lives.

Viewpoints like some answers here for example ... that "all women" pretend to have mental illnesses for some reason ~ what a great incentive that attitude is for a woman suffering, say, Post Natal Depression to go along and seek help (or for her relatives or friends to encourage her to do so) ... yet people with these stigmatising attitudes are the first to scream "hang 'em high" if tragedy results from lack of treatment.

Exactly the same is true of men facing PTSD ~ just a look at how Vietnam Veterans with this condition have been treated is enough to make anyone disgusted.

A hundred years ago, literature abounded with stories of 'mad' relatives locked in attics, a century before that people would take their families to see the inmates of insane asylums just as they would enjoy a visit to the zoo.

Today, we starve psychiatric facilities of funds and are perfectly able to accept the fact that prisons are full of people with psychiatric and developmental illnesses and disorders, who could be productive citizens with very minimal treatment.

How are we any better than the 'Bedlam Tourists'?

It's decades since we felt the need to lock up people with diseases like measles and psoriasis that can be treated with the right antibiotics or a tube of cream, and nowadays we are horrified to think that was ever done.

In the future I suspect people will regard our attitude to people with psych issues in exactly the same way.

Best wishes :-)

Answer 2

In the case of people with real mental illness  (schizophrenia, genuine manic depression, severe clinical depression) I agree completely.

Nearly everyone (and all women) claim to be mentally ill nowadays with all sorts of nothing complaints and this has trivialised the phrase "mentally ill".

Answer 3

Having worked in the area I can tell you from personal experience that the average citizen does not have a clue as to just what goes on once the doors are locked and the "nutters" are "penned up" for the night. There should be mandatory public education on the subject. People with biased opinions and prejudices should be publicly 'outed' and shown up for what they really are.....intolerant and discriminatory bigots!

Answer 4

It is so hard to try and get people to understand mental illness.

It's not only Canada, but also other countries(such as Australia) which have a terrible view towards people who are mentally ill.

I wish people would realise that there are many people out there with a form of mental illness who really do not wish to be so ill in this way and it's not a mood that can be snapped out of.

Also, many people with mental illness(such as myself-depression) would harm themselves before even entertaining any thoughts of harming another person.

Reach out and get to know someone who is a sufferer, you may be pleasantly surprised at how they are just like you, not a leper to be avoided.

Answer 5

Agree...however the term mental illness is broad.  Is it discrimination when I dont want to leave my kid with a schizo or someone recognized by the government as not a person who is considered able to make choices for themselves?

Answer 6

Geez Darren, angry much?

Sadly, I agree.

I think it's sad that mental illness is still considered by many to be "junk science". You'd think with all the people in prison they would be studied as to what drove these men and women to commit the crimes, study their behaviors and what can be done for prevention.

It's the stigma of depression, bipolar disorder and schizophrenia that people don't think others need treatment, so no one winds up taking it seriously until something horrible happens. Of course it is abused by some - everything with a label of illness seems to come with some fraud.

I think the American Justice system uses the term mental illness a bit loosely, but overall I think we are still in the infant stages of determining what it is exactly and what causes REAL mental illness.

It is real - just like addiction, depression, anything that potentially does damage to yourself or others should be addressed. Neuroscience is fascinating to me, and if you watch that Most Evil show on Information Discovery it delves into this. Like what triggers aggression and behaviors in men and women. We shouldn't discriminate against those who have it, as they can help others learn how to deal with it.  

Answer 7

I dont think these attidues are only Canadian, the stigma of mental illness is still high and will remain so by most societies until mature and grow up.

Answer 8

I think people instinctively shy away from the subject of mental illness, as the borders of what makes a person a person vs a mentally ill person are so indistinct.  Are we our neurochemistry?  I think that is emerging as a true statement, and one people don't want to grapple with.  Thus the unexamined aversion to the whole subject.

And, in a more mundane sense, because it is so hard to define.  You don't know what your neighbor may think...your relative's "mild" condition may rank as serious to your neighbor, or he may judge it a sham.  So one avoids the subject.