The Science of Changing Behavioral Health Social Norms

Consensus

Download PDF

Paperback - $37.80
Ebook - $30.59

Estimates indicate that as many as 1 in 4 Americans will experience a mental health problem or will misuse alcohol or drugs in their lifetimes. These disorders are among the most highly stigmatized health conditions in the United States, and they remain barriers to full participation in society in areas as basic as education, housing, and employment. Improving the lives of people with mental health and substance abuse disorders has been a priority in the United States for more than 50 years. The Community Mental Health Act of 1963 is considered a major turning point in America's efforts to improve behavioral healthcare. It ushered in an era of optimism and hope and laid the groundwork for the consumer movement and new models of recovery. The consumer movement gave voice to people with mental and substance use disorders and brought their perspectives and experience into national discussions about mental health.

However over the same 50-year period, positive change in American public attitudes and beliefs about mental and substance use disorders has lagged behind these advances. Stigma is a complex social phenomenon based on a relationship between an attribute and a stereotype that assigns undesirable labels, qualities, and behaviors to a person with that attribute. Labeled individuals are then socially devalued, which leads to inequality and discrimination. This report contributes to national efforts to understand and change attitudes, beliefs and behaviors that can lead to stigma and discrimination. Changing stigma in a lasting way will require coordinated efforts, which are based on the best possible evidence, supported at the national level with multiyear funding, and planned and implemented by an effective coalition of representative stakeholders.

Ending Discrimination Against People with Mental and Substance Use Disorders: The Evidence for Stigma Change explores stigma and discrimination faced by individuals with mental or substance use disorders and recommends effective strategies for reducing stigma and encouraging people to seek treatment and other supportive services. It offers a set of conclusions and recommendations about successful stigma change strategies and the research needed to inform and evaluate these efforts in the United States.

Additional materials

Press Release

Publication information

170 pages · 6 x 9 · paperback
ISBN Paperback: 0-309-43912-4
ISBN Ebook: 0-309-43913-2
DOI: https://doi.org/10.17226/23442

Suggested citation

National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2016. Ending Discrimination Against People with Mental and Substance Use Disorders: The Evidence for Stigma Change. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.

Import this citation to:

David H. Wegman

David H. Wegman is emeritus professor in the School of Health and Environment at the University of Massachusetts, Lowell. Dr. Wegman was previously dean of the School of Health and Environment. He also serves as adjunct professor at the Harvard School of Public Health. Dr. Wegman has focused his research on epidemiologic studies across a range of work-related health conditions, including respiratory disease, musculoskeletal disorders, and cancer. He has also written on public health and policy issues concerning occupational hazard and health surveillance, methods of exposure assessment for occupational epidemiologic studies, the development of alternatives to occupational regulation and the use of participatory methods to study occupational health risks. Dr. Wegman is a member of the NRC Board on Human Systems Integration and the IOM Committee on Aerospace Medicine and the Medicine of Extreme Environments. He has served as both member and chair on numerous NRC and IOM committees, and has been designated as a National Associate to recognize his extraordinary service to the NRC and IOM. Dr. Wegman received his B.A. from Swarthmore College, and his M.D. and M.Sc. from Harvard University and is board certified in preventive medicine (occupational medicine).

Beth Angell

Beth Angell is associate professor in the School of Social Work and the Institute for Health, Health Care Policy, and Aging Research at Rutgers University. Her research focuses on serious mental illness, including predictors of treatment seeking, and treatment engagement and adherence; consumer-provider interactions and relationships; sources and consequences of stigma; and mandated treatment. Her projects have been funded by the National Institute of Mental Health, the NARSAD foundation, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Research Network on Mandated Community Treatment, and the Chicago Community Trust. Dr. Angell’s current projects focus on vulnerable populations, including incarcerated persons, and those with serious and persistent mental illness. Dr. Angell received an M.S.S.W. and a Ph.D. in social welfare from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Joseph N. Cappella

Joseph N. Capella is the Gerald R. Miller Professor of Communication at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania. His research areas include social cognition, communication theory, health communication, persuasion and politics, nonverbal behavior, and statistical and mathematical methods. He conducts studies on cognitive processing of verbal and visual materials, organization of social interaction, and message effects. Dr. Cappella’s research has resulted in more than 150 articles and book chapters and four co-authored books in areas of health and political communication, social interaction, nonverbal behavior, media effects, and statistical methods. His research has been supported by grants from NIMH, NIDA, NSF, NCI, NHGRI, the FDA, The Twentieth Century Fund, and from the Markel, Ford, Carnegie, Pew, and Robert Wood Johnson foundations. His book with Kathleen Hall Jamieson on the Spiral of Cynicism has won prizes from the American Political Science Association and the ICA. He has served on the editorial boards of 20 different journals. He is a Fellow of the International Communication Association and its past president, a distinguished scholar of the National Communication Association, and recipient of the B. Aubrey Fisher Mentorship Award. Dr. Cappella received his Ph.D. in communication from Michigan State University.

Patrick W. Corrigan

Patrick W. Corrigan is distinguished professor of psychology at the Illinois Institute of Technology, and editor of a new journal by the APA, Stigma and Health. Previously, he was Associate Dean for Research in the Institute of Psychology at Illinois Institute of Technology, and professor of psychiatry at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and at the Pritzker School of Medicine at the University of Chicago. His research examines psychiatric disability and the impact of stigma on recovery and rehabilitation. Currently, he is principal investigator of the National Consortium for Stigma and Empowerment, a collaboration of investigators from more than a dozen research institutions, which is funded by NIMH. Dr. Corrigan is the author of The Stigma of Disease and Disability by the American Psychological Association, and principal investigator of current grants from NIMH, NIMHD, and PCORI. Dr. Corrigan earned a Psy.D. in clinical psychology from the Illinois School of Professional Psychology.is associate professor in the School of Social Work and the Institute for Health, Health Care Policy, and Aging Research at Rutgers University.

William L. Holzemer

William L. Holzemer (IOM) is dean and distinguished professor of nursing at Rutgers University. Previously, at the School of Nursing, University of California, San Francisco he was associate dean for research and chair of the Department of Community Health Systems. Dr. Holzemer has received international distinction for his research focused on living well with HIV/AIDS, including the aspects of adherence, stigma, symptoms and quality of life. He recently completed two National Institute of Health grants as principal investigator exploring the impact of HIV stigma on quality of care in five African nations for people living with HIV infection; and his research has been featured in numerous important health care and nursing journals. He is a member of the Institute of Medicine, and has served as both member and chair on numerous IOM committees. Dr. Holzemer earned a BSN in nursing from San Francisco State University and a PhD in education from Syracuse University.

Clarence E. Jordan

Clarence Jordan is Vice President of Wellness and Recovery, Beacon Health Options where he leads a multidisciplinary team devoted to providing recovery-based services, including a network of peers who work directly with adults and families. Mr. Jordan has worked with the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) and served two terms on the national board of directors. As a member of his local affiliate he developed “A Family Guide on Mental Illness, What Every Family Needs to Know.” As a result of his work in the African American community his State Office was presented with the 2006 NAMI Multi-Culture Outreach Award. Mr. Jordan also serves on the board of directors of SourceAmerica whose mission it is to promote competitive employment of individuals with major disabilities. Mr. Jordan is a national spokesperson and author on peer services, wellness and recovery, and the stigma of mental illness and substance abuse. Mr. Jordan received the Consumer Leadership Award at the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Service Administration’s (SAMHSA) 2010 National Voice Awards. He was selected as the 2014 Peer Specialist of the Year by the National Council on Community Behavioral Health. Mr. Jordan earned an M.B.A. at the Naval Post Graduate School in Monterey California.

Annie Lang

Annie Lang is distinguished professor of telecommunications and cognitive science at Indiana University. Her research seeks to explain how people process mediated messages. To date this work has produced a general data-driven model of mediated message processing. This research has resulted in over 100 academic publications and been supported by almost 3 million dollars in grants. She is serving a three-year term as editor of the journal Media Psychology, is a Fellow of the International Communication Association, and is recipient of ICA’s Steven H. Chaffee career productivity award. Dr. Lang earned her Ph.D. in mass communication from the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

Rebecca Palpant Shimkets

Rebecca Palpant Shimkets is associate director for The Rosalynn Carter Fellowships for Mental Health Journalism of the Carter Center Mental Health Program. Ms. Shimkets developed and oversees a journalism fellowship program that each year awards stipends to approximately ten professional journalists in the United States and Colombia to produce a significant work on mental health or mental illnesse. Within the Carter Center Mental Health Program she also designs new initiatives related to stigma reduction and measurement and advises on programming including the annual national symposium. Ms. Shimkets is an active leader in the field participating on advisory boards, committees, and within national work groups related to stigma and accurate portrayals of mental illnesses in the media. Ms. Shimkets received a M.S. in community counseling from Georgia State University.

Bernice A. Pescosolido

Bernice A. Pescosolido is distinguished professor of sociology at Indiana University and director of the Indiana Consortium for Mental Health Services Research. In the area of stigma research, Dr. Pescosolido has led a team of researchers on a series of national and international stigma studies including the first U.S national study in 40 years, the first national study of children's mental health, and the first global study of 16 countries representing all six inhabited continents. Her research addresses how social networks connect individuals to their communities and to institutional structures, providing the "wires" through which people’s attitudes and actions are influenced. Dr. Pescosolido has received numerous career, scientific, and community awards including the Wilbur Lucius Cross Medal from Yale University, the Carl A. Taube Award for Distinguished Contributions to the Field of Mental Health Services Research from the Mental Health Section of the American Public Health Association, and the Leonard I. Pearlin Award for Distinguished Contributions to the Sociological Study of Mental Health from the American Sociological Association. Dr. Pescosolido earned a M.A., M.Phil., and Ph.D. in sociology from Yale University.

Ruth Shim

Ruth Shim is vice chair of education and faculty development in the Department of Psychiatry at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City. Formerly, she was an associate professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Morehouse School of Medicine, and the associate director of Behavioral Health at the National Center for Primary Care. Her research interests include mental health stigma, integration of primary care and behavioral health care, and mental health disparities. She is co-editor of an upcoming book on the social determinants of mental health, to be published by American Psychiatric Publishing. Dr. Shim has ongoing collaborative relationships with the Carter Center Mental Health Program, the Satcher Health Leadership Institute at Morehouse School of Medicine, and the Center for Behavioral Health Policy Studies at the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University. Dr. Shim is a Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association, and is a member of the Preventive Psychiatry and Fellowship Committees of the Group for the Advancement of Psychiatry. She received a M.P.H. in health policy and a M.D. from Emory University.

Eric R. Wright

Eric R. Wright is professor of sociology and public health at Georgia State University and a Second Century Initiative (2CI) faculty in the Atlanta Census Research Data - Health Policy and Risky Behaviors Cluster. Prior to joining the faculty at Georgia State University, Dr. Wright was a professor and chair of the Department of Health Policy and Management and director of the Center for Health Policy in the Indiana University Richard M. Fairbanks School of Public Health at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis. As a medical sociologist, his research interests center on social and public policy responses to mental health and illness, substance use and addictions, sexual health, and HIV/STI prevention. In addition, Dr. Wright is actively involved in conducting research to understand and ameliorate health problems and disparities in minority and other vulnerable communities, including lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer people. He has extensive experience in working with community organizations as well as local and state government to better understand community health needs and improve the effectiveness of health- and healthcare- related programs and policies. He is or has been the principal or co-principal investigator of numerous federal and state-funded research and evaluation projects and has published many policy briefs, technical reports, and peer-reviewed scientific papers which have appeared in medical sociology as well as interdisciplinary health, psychiatric, and health policy journals. He holds a M.A. and Ph.D. in sociology from Indiana University, Bloomington.

Lisa M. Vandemark

Lisa M. Vandemark, Ph.D., Senior Program Officer
Lisa M. Vandemark is board certified and licensed as an advanced practice psychiatric nurse in the District of Columbia where she maintains a clinical practice working with children and families. In her previous tenure at the Academies from 1998-2005, Lisa directed two standing committees at the National Research Council’s Board on Earth Sciences and Resources and several consensus studies at both the National Research Council and the Institute of Medicine. These activities focused primarily on social and environment influences on health and health outcomes in the United States and in developing countries. From 2006 to 2010, Lisa was on the faculty at the Medical University of South Carolina where she taught in the psychiatric nurse practitioner and global health programs. During that time, she was also a consultant and Fulbright scholar in Northeast Thailand and Laos, and is currently on the Fulbright Specialist roster for global and community health. At the American Nurses Association from 2011-2013, Lisa was Assistant Director for Research and the main faculty liaison for the American Nurses Credentialing Center. Most recently, she has been a nurse consultant at the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) Division of Nursing and Public Health. Lisa Vandemark holds a bachelor’s and master’s degree in nursing from Rutgers University and Catholic University respectively, and a master’s degree in Human Ecology from the University of Brussels, and PhD in Geography from Rutgers University.

Log In

Sign in to access your saved publications, downloads, and email preferences.

Former MyNAP users: You'll need to reset your password on your first login to MyAcademies. Click "Forgot password" below to receive a reset link via email. Having trouble? Visit our FAQ page to contact support.

Members of the National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, or National Academy of Medicine should log in through their respective Academy portals.

Email (required)
Password (required)

Don't have an account?

Register

Email (required)
New password (required)
Retype password (required) Password must be at least 8 characters
I accept the terms of use
terms of use

Thank You

Thank you for creating a MyAcademies account!

Enjoy free access to thousands of National Academies' publications, a 10% discount off every purchase, and build your personal library.

Forgot Password

Enter the email address for your MyAcademies (formerly MyNAP) account to receive password reset instructions.

Reset Requested

We sent password reset instructions to your email . Follow the link in that email to create a new password. Didn't receive it? Check your spam folder or contact us for assistance.

Reset Password

New password (required)
Retype password (required) Password must be at least 8 characters

Reset Password

Your password has been reset.

Log In

Verify email

Verify Your Email Address

We sent a verification link to your email. Please check your inbox (and spam folder) and follow the link to verify your email address. If you did not receive the email, you can request a new verification link below

Subscribe

First Name
Last Name
Email (required)
I agree to receive emails from the National Academies (required)

We respect your privacy and will never share your information.

The Science of Changing Behavioral Health Social Norms

Featured publication

Description

Contributors

Committee

Sponsors

Staff

Major units and sub-units

Contact

Contact us

Provide feedback

Request materials

More like this

Review of the draft United by Nature assessment

Modernizing Mathematics Education for Grades 9-14

Health Care Financing to Improve Availability of Affordable Contraception: Identifying Promising Practices

Social and Economic Systems Program Area

Prevention of and Response to Sexual Harassment in Higher Education: Tools for Department Chairs and Principal Investigators: A Workshop

Center for Health, People, and Places (CHPP)

Sustaining Community Engagement in Genomics Research: A Workshop

Clinical Trials of Far UV to Reduce Indoor Transmission of Respiratory Infections

Ensuring the Quality, Credibility, and Relevance of U.S. Homeland Security Statistics

Additional materials

Publication information

Suggested citation

My Academies

The Science of Changing Behavioral Health Social Norms

Dropdown items

Featured publication

Ending Discrimination Against People with Mental and Substance Use Disorders: The Evidence for Stigma Change

Description

Contributors

Committee

Sponsors

Staff

Major units and sub-units

Contact

Contact us

Provide feedback

Request materials

More like this

Review of the draft United by Nature assessment

Modernizing Mathematics Education for Grades 9-14

Health Care Financing to Improve Availability of Affordable Contraception: Identifying Promising Practices

Social and Economic Systems Program Area

Prevention of and Response to Sexual Harassment in Higher Education: Tools for Department Chairs and Principal Investigators: A Workshop

Center for Health, People, and Places (CHPP)

Sustaining Community Engagement in Genomics Research: A Workshop

Clinical Trials of Far UV to Reduce Indoor Transmission of Respiratory Infections

Ensuring the Quality, Credibility, and Relevance of U.S. Homeland Security Statistics