Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Helsinki, 00014 Helsinki, Finland.
Faculty of Social Sciences, Tampere University, 33100 Tampere, Finland.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2021 Nov 11;18(22):11840. doi: 10.3390/ijerph182211840.
People who are recovering from a mental illness often have difficulties finding and maintaining employment. One of the main reasons for these difficulties is the negative label, or stigma, attached to mental illnesses. People who possess stigmatizing characteristics may use compensatory stigma management strategies to reduce discrimination. Due to mental illnesses' invisible characteristics, information control is an important stigma management strategy. People can often choose whether they disclose or non-communicate their illness. Nevertheless, it might be difficult to decide when and to whom to disclose or non-communicate the stigma. Since stigma management is a dilemmatic process, workers in mental health services play an important role in informing their clients of when it is best to disclose or non-communicate their illness. In this article, we adopt the perspective of discursive social psychology to investigate how workers of one mental health service programme evaluate and construct self-disclosure and non-communication as stigma management strategies. We demonstrate how these workers recommend non-communication and formulate strict stipulations for self-disclosure. At the same time, they differentiate non-communication from lying or providing false information. The study contributes to an improved understanding of stigma management in contemporary mental health services.
患有精神疾病的人在寻找和维持就业方面往往存在困难。造成这些困难的主要原因之一是精神疾病的负面标签或污名化。具有污名化特征的人可能会使用补偿性污名管理策略来减少歧视。由于精神疾病的无形特征，信息控制是一种重要的污名管理策略。人们通常可以选择是否披露或不交流他们的疾病。然而，决定何时以及向谁披露或不交流这种污名可能会很困难。由于污名管理是一个进退两难的过程，精神健康服务的工作人员在告知他们的客户何时最好披露或不交流他们的疾病方面起着重要作用。在本文中，我们采用话语社会心理学的观点，调查了一个精神健康服务项目的工作人员如何评估和构建自我披露和不交流作为污名管理策略。我们展示了这些工作人员如何推荐不交流，并为自我披露制定严格的规定。同时，他们将不交流与说谎或提供虚假信息区分开来。这项研究有助于更好地理解当代精神健康服务中的污名管理。
