There are a lot of negative perceptions and attitudes attached to mental illness in a society that increases the challenges of accessing quality professional help. Due to the stigmatization of the condition, a large number of individuals with mental conditions are reluctant to seek medical attention. In this regard, there is need to engage in an advocacy campaign to eliminate the stigma and increase treatment and help for individuals with mental illness. This paper discusses an advocacy campaign developed to address the issue of stigmatization of patients with mental illness. The advocacy is based on the idea that reducing stigmatization of mental illness can be one way of minimizing the prevalence of the condition in the country.
Population health issue
The health condition selected for this advocacy campaign is stigmatization of mental illness that has a negative impact on patients’ access to professional health. The high prevalence of this condition is due to most individuals avoiding seeking medical attention till severe stages of the disease. Stigma in mental health involves perceiving such patients as weak and potentially dangerous individuals of the society who can cause harm to others. As such, they are alienated from several social functions due to their psychological condition. Several factors have been mentioned as possible reasons for the negative attitudes towards mental illness including a lack of public awareness and knowledge about mental disorders while Social demographic factors such as ethnicity and race are risk factors for stigmatization.
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Teenage depression has been on the rise in the recent years that has affected their quality of life. However, a majority of these teenagers tend to avoid seeking professional help due to the stigmatization of the condition affecting their overall quality of life. This is an institutional and system-based problem that can be solved through policy implementation. As such, there is a need to develop a mental health policy that integrates anti-stigma campaigns in high schools and colleges to help teenagers struggling with depression and other mental health illnesses.
Health advocacy campaign
The advocacy campaign is to implement anti-stigma policies in high schools to address stigmatization of mental illness. One objective of this campaign will be to equip teachers and students with knowledge regarding mental illness and change the existing negative attitudes towards the condition. Another objective of the advocacy campaign is to achieve behavioral change among students suffering from depression among other mental states by sensitizing them into seeking professional health. The proposed advocacy policy will help in ending stigmatization attached to mental illness by countering the stereotypes attached to mental disorders that causes stigmatization and sensitize the community against this stigmatization. As such, the campaign aims to open doors for the provision of community-based comprehensive care for students with mental health conditions.
The stigmatization of people with mental illness may be attributed to lack of knowledge and awareness among sections of the society regarding its effects. As such, there is a need to raise awareness about mental health stigma and sensitize the community about its implications. If society gets to perceive mental illness like other chronic conditions such as heart disease, they will start to understand the effects of stigmatization and reduce the negative attitudes. Increasing the awareness of the severity of mental illness among patients can reduce the stigmatization and make the society more tolerant of mental illness. Lack of stigma to mental illness will result in adolescent struggling with depression to get the necessary professional help early enough before the condition becomes severe. The campaign can, therefore, help in reducing the prevalence of suicidal ideation reported among adolescents with depression since the negative attitude and stigmatization associated with mental illness affects access to professional care.
Previous mental health campaigns have turned out to be successful in creating a positive impact within targeted population. Some of these campaigns used the didactic educational approach or the contact-based approaches to spread the awareness against stereotypes attached to mental health conditions. The implementation of this advocacy campaign will therefore bank on previous mental health campaigns and their successes.
Summary of previous campaigns
An effective advocacy campaign needs clear goals and a purposeful message for the audience. Previous anti-stigma campaigns have been successfully used to minimize stigmatization of mental illness due to the packaging of the message and its focus. One of the campaigns was conducted by the Mental Health Commission of Canada known as Opening Mind anti-stigma Initiative that focused on ending prejudice towards mental health patients in the country. The initiative targeted healthcare professionals, young people, media and the workforce using different approaches for each group. Some of these approaches were a contact-based intervention where individuals who recovered from mental illness provide their experiences with stigmatization. The campaign also applied the traditional didactic educational approach by engaging the workforce in educating them about the dangers of stigmatization.
Another anti-stigma campaign was carried out in the United Kingdom targeting working individuals between 20 and 40 years to change their negative attitudes towards mental illness. The Time to Change anti-stigma campaign applied social marketing approaches such as holding social events and the media to spread the message, calling upon people to develop relationships with mental health patients. Both of these campaigns had clear goals in seeking to stop stigmatization of mental illness and focused their messages to suit the defined target audience. Additionally, they used different strategies and tools in spreading the awareness message including the use of social marketing and contact-based interventions. As such, these campaigns show how to make a campaign successful.
Legal Consideration
Stigmatization of mental illness has negatively affected patient’s access to professional help. Statistics have shown that most teenagers struggle with mental conditions without seeking help as they lack the courage to talk about their situation. The stigmatization has affected the overall quality of life for teenagers by delaying early diagnosis and treatment of the condition. While there are few policies enacted to prevent mental illness stigma, the prevalence of the problem is still huge since most of these policies focus on a broad spectrum without narrowing down to groups most affected by the condition. This part focuses on the legal aspects of the proposed anti-stigma advocacy campaign including the creation of a new legislation and a discussion of the lobbying methods that will be used to influence legislators.
Creation of new legislation
This health promotion is an advocacy campaign that requires all high schools to implement an anti-stigma policy and reinforce its implementation to ensure there is no discrimination against students with the condition. The initiative proposes an implementation of measures that can support a proper learning environment for diverse students in a school. This implementation will be supported by holding educational forums and training on mental illness and the stigmatization issue to sensitize students and teachers on the condition. Through this policy, schools will create an anti-stigma learning environment that entails disciplinary action toward any victim and help in changing their negative attitudes towards mental health conditions. Currently, no specific law focuses on addressing the stigma attached to mental illness in high school while the existing policies do not exclusively target mental health conditions in high schools.
How existing law could affect advocacy efforts
The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act was enacted as a regulation focusing on the youth diagnosed with physical and mental disabilities. This law ensures that individuals with physical as well as mental disabilities get access to free public education and requires institutions of learning to address the unique needs of such students so that they have a suitable environment to succeed. In this regard, this law would assist in implementing the proposed policy by ensuring high schools accept more students with mental disabilities and provide an environment that supports their learning. Having this existing law in place offers critical support for nurses to give awareness of the importance of minimizing stigma towards mental illness.
Methods used to influence legislators and three legs of lobbying
The legislators need to be convinced of the necessity of this proposed policy before introducing the plan to Congress and using the three legs of lobbying is an effective method to influence them. Successful lobbying requires an understanding of the three legs of lobbying and how to use them. The first leg of lobbying will entail using professional lobbyists such as calling, emailing and communicating with the relevant bodies as an act of influencing. This approach may entail approaching health professionals who have direct contact with mental health patients and use them to persuade a government entity or legislators to adopt legislation. In most cases, legislators tend to rely on knowledge from professionals to raise awareness on the issue and what they are going to vote in the legislation. As such, using professionals in the field can influence local legislators into championing for the passing of the bill.
The second leg comprises grassroots lobbyists who have knowledge and expertise about the issue and can be valuable resources in providing the needed information to the elected officials. This step entails creating a network of people who can raise the awareness campaign and influence the public to support the proposed policy. Such experts may include nurses and psychologists or constituents of the legislators who can speak up against stigma attached to mental illness and have to understand the lengthy process of policymaking. Lastly, money also plays a fundamental role in facilitating the lobbying process since lack of enough funds to support the campaigns can cripple the ability to influences legislators. The purpose of money is the third leg of the advocacy which can be raised from grassroots supporters as well as nursing professional organizations. Lobbyists should not ignore the importance of getting financial support to facilitate advocacy campaigns.
Anticipated obstacles to overcome
One of the barriers to this advocacy campaign that might affect the legislative process might be the timing since the effectiveness of influencing policymakers depends on the schedule of the political environment. The best time to approach politicians and change them in making policy is during an election period since most policymakers will be campaigning. Another obstacle can be lack of enough funds to rally support for the legislation process. The funds can also be used in raising awareness for the issue and educate grassroots members. Overcoming these obstacles requires raising awareness of the problem through all forms of media, including mainstream as well as social media. Social media can particularly be helpful in this campaign as it has played a role in bringing this issue on the limelight. As such, nurses can raise awareness by educating school directors and other students on what mental stigma can cause on the lives of students to ensure that individuals are aware of the effects of stigma and discrimination. Additionally, the obstacle can be overcome by seeking sponsorships and partnership with other interested parties interested in minimizing the risk of mental illness.
Ethical issues
Ethical issues are bound to arise in any healthcare situation and can be recorded in an advocacy campaign against stigma attached to mental illness due to the sensitivity of the topic. In this regard, there is need to consider legal and ethical aspects when conducting advocacy, often considered the cornerstone of nursing to influence policies and cause systematic changes. Advocacy is mostly motivated by ethical and moral principles, with the ANA nursing code of ethics describing how advocacy should be conducted. This part describes ethical dilemmas and challenges in implementing this advocacy campaign.
Ethical dilemmas
Every health promotion campaign is a value-laden enterprise that could result in significant ethical dilemmas and increases the need to negotiate and understand potentially conflicting fundamental interests and values of the stakeholders involved in the campaign. The moral dilemma for this advocacy campaign entails dealing with the diversity in students and the different perceptions regarding mental illness, in the form of knowing when to step in and make decisions for the patient or allow them autonomy to make decisions about their treatment. The dilemma revolves around decisions to enforce the policy without infringing their privacy and freedom of the public. Most psychiatrists face a dilemma of obliging towards beneficence or respecting the patient’s autonomy. Physicians are supposed to weigh the harms and benefits of enforcing procedures on a patient to avoid infringing their privacy.
A person with mental health disorder can only be treated with their consent to avoid infringing their autonomy. There might be reasons why a patient may refuse to seek medication including cultural values and beliefs that influence their perception or the familiarity of the physician. As such, physicians need to consider future risk before making a decision, such as a risk of ruining patient-provider relationship and rejection of future treatment. They are supposed to use autonomy by allowing the patient to decide how they wish to address their condition. However, this issue of autonomy may create a debate when involving teenagers who are deemed not old enough to make autonomous decisions surrounding their conditions. For example, some physicians may believe a patient needs this treatment for better academic performance even when they refuse to come out due to stigmatization. Teenagers need guidance and do not have all the ability to make decisions regarding mental illness, and psychiatrists can have a close relationship with the student and understands their condition. This creates a dilemma for this condition in high schools.
Ethics and Lobbying laws applicable to an advocacy campaign
The ethics act and lobbying laws are involved, and their violation can result in severe consequences. The first rule of thumb is to be aware of the ethics laws in a particular state before carrying out the lobbying. For example, the Honest Leadership and Open Government Act of 2007 require that state and local governments place unambiguous ethical prerequisites on every advocacy campaign within their region. Other jurisdictions oblige lobbyists to pursue moral lessons in ensuring they are informed of every law controlling the activity.
Lobbying laws require that any advocacy campaign is compatible with the public good while the ethics act sets standards of conduct for carrying out lobbying activities. As such, the program should have an overall good rather than seeking to achieve personal gratification. Health institutions should uphold an ethics management system that helps staff in dealing with ethical dilemma. They should ensure everyone is well grounded in healthcare policies and ethics management by customization of ethics management systems to the facts of the notable case. Hospital management should also uphold an ethics management system that aids staff in dealing with ethical dilemmas thought ethical training skills needed to handle sensitive matters.
Special ethical challenges unique to the population
There are many causes of depression reported among teenagers who avoid seeking medical attention due to stigmatization. Stigma takes particular importance in schools because of the interdependence and overlapping relationships occurring in small, closed communities. This environment makes it easier to identify the condition that the patient faces as well as to propel the stigmatization. The prejudice may occur in the form of health providers or other students isolating teenagers with mental illness or making fun of the condition.
The health information advocacy will involve the use of techniques such as emotional appeals and provocative tactics to spread the message, but it risks infringing of people’s privacy and other unintended effects on the society. A special ethical challenge entails preserving the confidentiality of patients which is central to the provision of care, especially to stigmatizing illnesses. Breach of privacy is more likely to occur in such a small community which may contribute to increased stigma. For example, adolescents ay forego visiting a psychiatrist to avoid being found out by her fellow peers. In a closed environment such as an institution, confidentiality can be difficult to attain especially since treating patients with stigmatizing conditions works best with an anonymous physician. Maintaining confidentiality can reduce stigma and encourage more people into seeking professional help. However, the advocacy campaign that can entail touching on such sensitive aspects may affect the success of the policy or program.
Summary and Conclusion
The paper has been exploring developing a new policy necessary for dealing with the stigma attached to mental health illness among high school students. The campaign has an objective of ensuring minimization of mental health stigmatization and creation of equal learning opportunities. Historically, patients with mental illness are regarded as dangerous in society and a threat to those around them. This stigmatization of mental illness can create tremendous difficulties for adolescences affecting their access to professional help. The stigma combines with distinctive characteristics of a school to cause a further dilemma in ethical practice. In the absence of an intervention program, many patients with mental illness are confined to asylums for most parts of their lives.
The advocacy ensures that mental illness stigma is minimized and students have equal opportunities to study. Through the advocacy and lobbying campaign, the policymakers in the local, state and federal levels are sensitized of the existing problem so that they can initiate programs towards reducing its impact in the society. Health care providers can work as advocates for patients and participate in local policymaking and other legislation purposes. The involvement in policymaking can be sustained by establishing collaborative networks to advocate for resources and enhance access to mental health care. The advocacy will, therefore, be beneficial in negating the stigma attached to mental illness by sustaining a positive attitude.
The psychological stigma advocacy initiative can be beneficial for all hospitals with nurses taking center stage in making it useful. Institutions of learning need to create an environment that minimizes stigma and discrimination against students with mental illness. Currently, the laws have not adequately addressed this issue that has been rampant among high school students. Health providers have a crucial role in achieving this status of a stigma-free society, though they are faced with ethical and legislative difficulties. Education of the general public through advocacy campaigns and policy implementation can help in reducing the stigma attached to mental health illness.
