"Unfortunately, we treat the chart:" sources of stigma in mental health settings.
BACKGROUND
Stigma within mental health settings may be equally detrimental to people with mental illnesses as societal stigma.


OBJECTIVE
This study investigated stigma in mental health settings through a mixed qualitative-quantitative design.


METHODS
Practitioners at a community mental health center indicated (1) their subjective experience of treating people with mental illness, and (2) descriptive features of people with mental illness.


RESULTS
Interpretive phenomenological analysis found that a primary theme across practitioners was the causes and effects of labeling patients, a process practitioners attributed to other practitioners and/or to systemic pressures to "treat the chart" instead of the patient. Beyond symptoms and deficits, practitioners rated people with mental illnesses as "insightful" and "able to recover."


CONCLUSIONS
These data suggest that stigma in mental health settings may be due to structural, systemic pressures on practitioners, with practitioners' emphasis on symptoms and deficits as a secondary factor.
Flanagan
Elizabeth H
EH
Department of Psychiatry, Yale School of Medicine, 319 Peck Street, Building 1, New Haven, CT 06513, USA. elizabeth.flanagan@yale.edu
Miller
Rebecca
R
Davidson
Larry
L
D000328:Adult; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D003155:Community Mental Health Centers; D003625:Data Collection; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000628:therapy*; D008875:Middle Aged; D011287:Prejudice; D011379:Prognosis; D013240:Stereotyping; D014481:United States