Beyond Stigma, Towards Equity: International Conference on Mental Health-Related Stigma and Discrimination

Abstract

Mental health-related stigma and discrimination are widespread throughout societies. It affects people living with mental illnesses worldwide at each level of their everyday functioning and creates barriers that are even more challenging than the illness itself.

People experience difficulties in their personal and family lives, in access to appropriate health and social care, in employment, in enjoying public goods, as well as in the area of basic human rights. There are number of interventions shown to be effective in reducing stigma-related burden.

However, the anti-stigma efforts in the Czech Republic have been limited and as a rule do not comply with the existing evidence. In the context of the current mental health care reform, it becomes clear that time is up to strengthen collective efforts and move beyond discrimination towards equity and social inclusion of people experiencing mental health problems in the Czech Republic.

National Institute of Mental Health in collaboration with the Ministry of Health of the Czech Republic, Norwegian Funds, King's College London and the Association for the Improvement of Mental Health Programmes will host a one-day conference aimed to present state of the art in stigma research worldwide and locally in the Czech Republic as a benchmark for future work toward decreasing stigma in Central and Eastern Europe.