The National Alliance On Mental Illness (NAMI) is a United States-based advocacy group originally founded as a grassroots group by family members of people diagnosed with mental illness. NAMI identifies its mission as being "dedicated to building better lives for the millions of Americans affected by mental illness". NAMI offers classes and trainings for people living with mental illnesses, their families, community members, and professionals, including what is termed psychoeducation, or education about mental illness NAMI holds regular events which combine fundraising for the organization and education, including Mental Illness Awareness Week and NAMIWalks.
Mental health is the level of psychological well-being or an absence of mental illness. It is the state of someone who is "functioning at a satisfactory level of emotional and behavioural adjustment". From the perspectives of positive psychology or of holism, mental health may include an individual's ability to enjoy life, and to create a balance between life activities and efforts to achieve psychological resilience. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), mental health includes "subjective well-being, perceived self-efficacy, autonomy, competence, inter-generational dependence, and self-actualization of one's intellectual and emotional potential, among others." The WHO further states that the well-being of an individual is encompassed in the realization of their abilities, coping with normal stresses of life, productive work and contribution to their community. Cultural differences, subjective assessments, and competing professional theories all affect how one defines "mental health".
Health equity synonymous with health disparity refers to the study and causes of differences in the quality of health and healthcare across different populations. Health equity is different from health equality, as it refers only to the absence of disparities in controllable or remediable aspects of health. It is not possible to work towards complete equality in health, as there are some factors of health that are beyond human influence. Inequity implies some kinds of social injustice. Thus, if one population dies younger than another because of genetic differences, a non-remediable/controllable factor, we tend to say that there is a health inequality. On the other hand, if a population has a lower life expectancy due to lack of access to medications, the situation would be classified as a health inequity. These inequities may include differences in the "presence of disease, health outcomes, or access to health care" between populations with a different race, ethnicity, sexual orientation or socioeconomic status.
Immigrant health care in the United States refers to the collective systems in the United States that deliver health care services to immigrants. The term "immigrant" is often used to encompass non-citizens of varying status; this includes permanent legal residents, refugees, and undocumented residents.
Mental distress is a term used, both by some mental health practitioners and users of mental health services, to describe a range of symptoms and experiences of a person's internal life that are commonly held to be troubling, confusing or out of the ordinary.
Mental health literacy has been defined as "knowledge and beliefs about mental disorders which aid their recognition, management or prevention. Mental health literacy includes the ability to recognize specific disorders; knowing how to seek mental health information; knowledge of risk factors and causes, of self-treatments, and of professional help available; and attitudes that promote recognition and appropriate help-seeking". The concept of mental health literacy was derived from health literacy, which aims to increase patient knowledge about physical health, illnesses, and treatments.
Mentalism or sanism describes discrimination and oppression against a mental trait or condition a person has, or is judged to have. This discrimination may or may not be characterized in terms of mental disorder or cognitive impairment. The discrimination is based on numerous factors such as stereotypes about neurodivergence, for example [Aspergers], learning disorders, ADHD, bipolar, schizophrenia, and personality disorders, specific behavioral phenomena such as stuttering and tics, or intellectual disability.
Discrimination against people with HIV/AIDS or serophobia is the prejudice, fear, rejection and discrimination against people afflicted with HIV/AIDS. Discrimination is one manifestation of stigma, and stigmatizing attitudes and behaviors may fall under the rubric of discrimination depending on the legislation of a particular country. HIV stands for human immunodeficiency virus. If left untreated, HIV can lead to the disease AIDS. HIV/AIDS is a sexually transmitted disease and cannot be cured, but with proper treatment, the individual can live just as long as without the disease.
The social stigma of obesity or anti-fat bias has caused difficulties and disadvantages for overweight and obese people. Weight stigma is similar and has been broadly defined as bias or discriminatory behaviors targeted at individuals because of their weight. Such social stigmas can span one's entire life, as long as excess weight is present, starting from a young age and lasting into adulthood. Several studies from across the world indicate overweight and obese individuals experience higher levels of stigma relative to their thinner counterparts. In addition, they marry less often, experience fewer educational and career opportunities, and on average earn a lesser income than normal weight individuals. Although public support regarding disability services, civil rights and anti-workplace discrimination laws for obese individuals have gained support across the years, overweight and obese individuals still experience discrimination, which may have implications to physiological and psychological health. These issues are compounded with the significant negative physiological effects associated with obesity.
In a study in Western societies, homeless people have a higher prevalence of mental illness when compared to the general population. They also are more likely to suffer from alcoholism and drug dependency. It is estimated that 20–25% of homeless people, compared with 6% of the non-homeless, have severe mental illness. Others estimate that up to one-third of the homeless suffer from mental illness. Studies have found that there is a correlation between homelessness and incarceration. Those with mental illness or substance abuse problems were found to be incarcerated at a higher frequency than the general population. Fischer and Breakey have identified the chronically mentally ill as one of the four main subtypes of homeless persons; the others being the street people, chronic alcoholics, and the situationally distressed.
Transgender health care refers to how medical institutions, communities and individuals approach the care of transgender people. It includes the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of physical and mental health conditions, as well as sex reassignment therapies. In this article, you will find information about gender variance, sex reassignment therapy, health risks, access to healthcare for trans people in different countries around the world, and specific information about transgender youth and transgender older adults.
The mental health of Filipino Americans is emotional and cognitive status of Americans of Filipino descent. Filipino Americans are more likely to suffer from mental illness than other Asian Americans due to a variety of social and economic factors. Filipino-Americans utilize mental health services less than other Asian-American groups.
Mental health inequality refers to the differences in the quality, access, and health care different communities and populations receive for mental health services. Globally, the World Health Organization estimates that 350 million people are affected with depressive disorders. Mental health can be defined as an individual's well-being and/or the absence of clinically defined mental illness. Inequalities that can occur in mental healthcare may include mental health status, access to and quality of care, and mental health outcomes, which may differ across populations of different race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, sex, gender, socioeconomic statuses, education level, and geographic location. Social determinants of health that can influence an individual's susceptibility to developing mental disorders and illnesses include, but are not limited to, economic status, education level, demographics, geographic location and genetics.
The conceptual ideology of a strong black woman identifies women of color as victims of intersectionality within a patriarchal society in which they are pushed to fit the standard mold of a traditional strong black woman versus what it means to be a woman to themselves. Used interchangeably, the "Black Superwomen Syndrome" is the pressure & expectation of a woman of color to manage multiple roles of the mother, worker, homemaker, student and any other roles that usually inclusive to one person or sex. Keep in mind, this is different then a career woman because rather than sacrifice the role that supports her family in order to excel in her career, the superwoman is forced to support both the traditional Suzy Homemaker role and a career woman. This mold of being self-reliant & self-contained is damaging in a sense because if you are unable to be self-reliant and/or self-contained then culturally you aren’t a true strong black woman and you aren’t to be depended on. This arrangement of social paradoxes creates a deadly environment that is damned if you, damned if you don’t stigma for black women across the diaspora. Historically, this stigma is what held black families together because of the systemic lack of strong balanced male authority is the same thing that is killing our women. When a woman has no choice to be strong all the time without a chance to breathe, anything that isn’t related to fulfilling all the roles that are needed are suppressed such as sadness or pain because of its deemed weakness.
Suicide awareness is a proactive effort to raise awareness around suicidal behaviors. It is focused on reducing social stigmas and ambiguity, by bringing attention to suicide statistically and sociologically, and encouraging positive dialogue and engagement as a means to prevent suicide. Suicide awareness is linked to suicide prevention as both address suicide education and the dissemination of information to ultimately decrease the rate of suicide. Awareness is a first stage that can ease the need for prevention. Awareness signifies a fundamental consciousness of the threat, while prevention focuses on stopping the act. Suicide awareness is not a medical engagement, but a combination of medical, social, emotional and financial counseling. Suicide awareness in adolescents focuses on the age group between 10–24 years, beginning with the onset of puberty.
The Attribution Questionnaire (AQ) is a 27-item self-report assessment tool designed to measure public stigma towards people with mental illnesses. It assesses emotional reaction and discriminatory responses based on answers to a hypothetical vignette about a man with schizophrenia named Harry. There are several different versions of the vignette that test multiple forms of attribution. Responses assessing stigma towards Harry are in the form of 27 items rated on a Likert scale ranging from 1 to 9. There are 9 subscales within the AQ that breakdown the responses one could have towards a person with mental illness into different categories. The AQ was created in 2003 by Dr. Patrick Corrigan and colleagues and has since been revised into smaller tests because of the complexity and hypothetical that did not capture children and adolescent's stigmas well. The later scales are the Attribution Questionnaire-9 (AQ-9), the revised Attribution Questionnaire (r-AQ), and the children's Attribution Questionnaire (AQ-8-C).
Discrimination against drug addicts is a form of discrimination against individuals who suffer from a drug addiction. In the process of stigmatization, drug addicts are stereotyped as having a particular set of undesirable traits, in turn causing other individuals to act in a fearful or prejudicial manner toward them. Drug use discrimination also leads to many users being secretive about drug use. As it relates to healthcare stigmatizing attitudes surrounding drug use can cause barriers to treatment uptake and engagement. In some of its manifestations, discrimination against drug addicts involves a violation of human rights.
Paternal depression is a psychological disorder derived from parental depression. Paternal depression affects the mood of men; fathers and caregivers in particular. 'Father' may refer to the biological father, foster parent, social parent, step-parent or simply the carer of the child. This mood disorder exhibits symptoms similar to postpartum depression (PPD) including anxiety, insomnia, irritability, consistent breakdown and crying episodes, and low energy. This may negatively impact family relationships and the upbringing of children. Parents diagnosed with parental depression often experience increased stress and anxiety levels during early pregnancy, labor and postpartum. Those with parental depression may have developed it early on but some are diagnosed later on from when the child is a toddler up until a young adult.
