| OCR Text |
Show Assessment of Mental Health Stigma in Mental Health Care Workers Lillian Farris, PMHNP DNP Student, RN, BSN, Larry Garrett, PhD, MPH, BSN, & Andrew Szeto, PhD Key Findings: Mental health stigma exists in mental health care workers in an inpatient psychiatric hospital. Background ”Stigma exists when elements of labeling, stereotyping, separation, status loss, and discrimination occur together in a power situation that allows them” (Link & Phelan, 2001, p. 377). Mental health stigma in mental health care workers is a problem because it causes bias in those providing care and can limit a patient’s access to mental health care. A literature review on this subject shows that there is currently little to no information on mental health stigma in mental health care workers in the United States and none in the state of Utah. Methods The University Neuropsychiatric Institute is an inpatient hospital with 9 units (150 beds). Workers include physicians, registered nurses, social workers, and psychiatric technicians. The Opening Minds Stigma Scale for Health Care Providers (OMS-HC) was utilized to assess the stigma, with a range from 20, as the least stigma, to 100, as the most stigma. A electronic questionnaire was available for two months, and delivered by email. REDCap was utilized for data collection. This was a pilot study of mental health stigma in mental health care workers. Results Have you ever observed mental illness stigma affect the care and treatment of patients? 181 completed questionnaires (13-MDs, 56-RNs, 102 Psych Techs, 10-Social Workers) Lowest score=20 Highest score=69 Average overall OMS-HC score: 38.27 Overall N (%) M± SD 181 38.27 ± 0.63 Profession p1 0.567 Physicians 13 (7.1%) 39.00 ± 5.64 Registered Nurses 56 (30.9%) 36.98 ± 8.00 Social Workers 10 (5.5%) 38.27 ± 8.41 Psychiatric Technicians 102 (56.3%) 38.92 ± 9.03 Conclusions Mental health stigma exists in mental health care workers despite their additional education and work experience in mental health. These results show less stigma than a similar study about mental health stigma in Canada. There was no statically significant difference between the professions. Feedback results on interventions included: • Adding a presentation and education to the annual training in the hospital • Educating staff members on the diagnostic criteria from the DSM 5 for each diagnosis to clarify what is bias and what is not • Anonymously allowing people to share stories that would normalize mental health issues References Link, B.G., & Phelan, J.C. (2001). Conceptualizing stigma. Annual Review of Sociology, 27, 363-385. Retrieved from http://www.annualreviews.org/doi/10.1146/annurev.soc.27.1.363. Modgill, G., Patten, S. B., Knaak, S., Kassam, A., & Szeto, A. C. (2014). Opening Minds Stigma Scale for Health Care Providers (OMS-HC): Examination of psychometric properties and responsiveness. Biomed Central Psychiatry, 14, 120 http://doi.org/10.1186/1471-244X-14-120. NAMI. (2017b). Stigma Free. Retrieved from https://www.nami.org/stigmafree. Stuber, J. P., Rocha, A., Christian, A., & Link, B. G. (2014). Conceptions of mental illness: Attitudes of mental health professionals and the general public. Psychiatric Services (Washington, D.C.), 65(4), 490–497. http://doi.org/10.1176/appi.ps.201300136 Ungar, T., Knaak, S., & Szeto, A. (2016). Theoretical and practical considerations for combating mental illness stigma in health care. Community Mental Health Journal, 52(3), 262-271. doi:10.1007/s10597-015-9910-4 COLLEGE OF NURSING |
