Title
Stigma towards mental illness and substance use issues in primary health care: Challenges and opportunities for Latin America
Date Issued
03 October 2018
Access level
metadata only access
Resource Type
journal article
Author(s)
Sapag J.C.
Sena B.F.
Bobbili S.J.
Velasco P.R.
Mascayano F.
Alvarado R.
Khenti A.
Publisher(s)
Routledge
Abstract
Stigma towards mental illness and addictive disorders is a global problem and one of the main obstacles in tackling this issue remains the effective integration of mental health services into primary health care (PHC). In Latin America, information has significantly increased on the existence of stigma; however, little is known about effective interventions to prevent stigma and promote recovery-oriented practices in PHC. The aim of this study is to understand the existing evidence regarding mental health stigma in PHC with a special focus on the Latin American region. A scoping review of the literature related to mental health stigma in PHC was conducted. Two hundred and seventeen articles were evaluated; 74 met inclusion criteria and 14 additional articles were selected from references of search results. Results were subdivided into five different perspectives: users, family members and significant others, health professionals, contextual factors, and potential effective interventions. Only nine studies were based in Latin America, and only one described an intervention to reduce stigma in mental health services, not specifically in PHC. We found an urgent need to develop interventions to understand and reduce stigma in PHC settings, especially in Latin America.
Start page
1468
End page
1480
Volume
13
Issue
10
Language
English
OCDE Knowledge area
Psiquiatría
Scopus EID
2-s2.0-85026765498
PubMed ID
Source
Global Public Health
ISSN of the container
1744-1692
Sponsor(s)
This work was supported by CONICYT, CHILE [Grant FONDECYT Regular 2016 #1160099]; and Grand Challenges Canada [Grant #0601-04; Global Mental Health]. Most of the studies included in our review focus on understanding the problem in PHC, but very few of them touched on interventions towards tackling this issue. However, some principles were identified for building future interventions. Over the past four years, a pilot intervention funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research – CIHR – to address stigma in PHC settings, with a focus on immigrant populations, has been implemented in three community health centres across Ontario, Canada (Evidence Exchange Network for Mental Health and Addictions [EENET], 2014; Khenti, Bobbili, & Sapag, 2012). The project demonstrates a potential foundation for future research and implementation of meaningful anti-stigma interventions. Currently a cluster randomised controlled study funded by Grand Challenges Canada is also being completed in the south of Lima, Peru (Mental Health Innovation Network [MHIN], 2016), and a related research project supported by a Chilean federal grant FONDECYT is being implemented in Chile (Sapag et al., 2016). The mixed methods study is focused on examining and understanding in depth the phenomenon of stigma toward people with MISUP in PHC, considering the perspectives of both health professionals and users within the particularities of the Chilean local context.
Sources of information: Directorio de Producción Científica Scopus