Reassessing mental illness stigma in mental health care: Competing stigmas and risk containment.

Research on mental illness stigma tends to focus on the most severe diagnoses and settings, and it pays insufficient attention to how the treatment process itself relates to stigma. This study, calling on 28 interviews with providers treating a wide range of mental problems in varied settings, addresses these issues. Findings reveal that stigma is associated with treatment across settings and severity, although dynamics vary based on the intensity of setting. Mental illness stigma competes with other stigmas in presenting for treatment. Once in treatment, mental health care acts as a stigma-mitigating "stamp" of risk containment for other societal systems and institutions, signifying that risks posed by clients' problems are being officially contained.