14 DAY TRIAL // A new investigation conducted by researchers in the United States reveals that the general public has registered no change in perception and discrimination levels when it comes to those who suffer from severe mental illnesses.
Unfortunately, the correlation was also found to hold true for people who suffered from substance abuse problems. This happens despite increased general awareness on why these conditions appear.
Over the past few years, the public has been informed as to the neurobiological explanations for these illnesses, and yet the new paper indicates that they are still unlikely to accept the explanations.
The result of the study, which was conducted by investigators at the Indiana University and Columbia University, are published in the September 15 online issue of the American Journal of Psychiatry.
The paper shows that large prejudice and discrimination levels still exist towards these people, and reveals that the trends are unlikely to change very soon.
The conclusions of these joint investigations also indicated that campaigns developed to curb these types of behaviors are largely ineffective. Health literacy in the US is still at appalling rates.
“Prejudice and discrimination in the US aren't moving. In fact, in some cases, it may be increasing. It's time to stand back and rethink our approach,” says scientist Bernice Pescosolido.
The expert, who holds an appointment as a sociologist at IU, is also a leading researcher in this area. She adds that the “disease like any other” approach currently applied in the US is ineffective.
“Often mental health advocates end up singing to the choir. We need to involve groups in each community to talk about these issues which affect nearly every family in American in some way. This is in everyone's interest,” says Pescosolido.
Over the past decade, experts have been trying to make the general public aware of the fact that conditions such as depression, schizophrenia and substance abuse are the result of genetic and medical abnormalities.
The new report assesses the progress made over the last 10 years, and its conclusions are worrying. The investigation was sponsored by the US National Institutes of Health (NIH).
The work was conducted on a representative sample of about 1,950 people, who were surveyed face-to-face as part of the biennial General Social Survey (GSS),
Experts Jack K. Martin of the Schuessler Institute for Social Research at IU, J. Scott Long and Tait R. Medina at the Department of Sociology in IU's College of Arts and Sciences, and Jo C. Phelan and Bruce G. Link from the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health were coauthors of the paper.