Stigma

I need to write about stigma. To be honest, it’s because right now I’m feeling a little pissed off! A friend shared with me that people in their network had reacted awkwardly to a personal situation, and had excluded them at a time when support and understanding was much needed. That exclusion is stigmatization.

It is Mental Health Month and yet stigma - a mark of disgrace associated with a particular circumstance, quality, or person - thrives. It has a crushing and devastating impact on our neighbors, friends, and families.

It seems that we, as a community, are all too eager to stigmatize people who are different from ourselves:

I’m gay

I have a mental health diagnosis

I’m a Democrat

I’m a Republican

I lost my job

I’m a Muslim

I’m homeless

I’m a vegan

I have a learning disability

I lost a loved one to suicide

I’m a transgender person

I’M DIFFERENT FROM YOU!

Why do we find it so difficult to embrace difference? Is it preferable that we live in a homogenized society? Is that the goal? Or do we really value diversity – and if we do, what actions can we take to ensure that the values of acceptance and inclusion triumph over division and rejection?

We know that stigma has damaging effects. According to a Seechange article, stigma:

• damages social relationships and social participation

• reduces self-esteem and dignity

• limits access to housing and employment

• leads to the abuse of human rights

Stigma also undermines social cohesion by creating fear, mistrust, prejudice, and violence (HealthyPlace). Plain and simple: stigma is bad for mental health, but it is also just bad for us as human beings.

I came across a definition of belongingness recently that resonated with me deeply:

Belonging is the feeling of security and support when there is a sense of acceptance, inclusion, and identity for a member of a certain group. It is when an individual can bring their authentic self to work. When employees feel like they don’t belong at work, their performance and their personal lives suffer. Creating genuine feelings of belonging for all is a critical factor in improving engagement and performance. It also helps support business goals.

(https://diversity.cornell.edu/belonging/sense-belonging)

As nonprofit leaders, what meaningful actions can we take with staff, volunteers, clients, or funders, to strengthen a sense of belonging and combat the alienating effects of stigma?

One way of doing this is to have intentional discussions with the board, staff, and volunteers on questions such as:

• How are we bringing people together in a healthy environment that promotes acceptance and trust?

• What are our commitments to anti-racism?

• What additional strategies do we need to implement to ensure that people who need our services can access them?

Creating action plans based on these discussions will ensure that awareness is converted into action. It seems to me that Mental Health Month is an appropriate time to have these discussions, and with a sense of urgency.

If we allow stigma in any form to persist, our communities will become increasingly divided and hostile. Difference will be seen as a threat and the tyranny of the majority will prevail. I urge you to reflect on this quote from British philosopher John Stuart Mill:

If the claims of individuality are ever to be asserted, the time is now, while much is still wanting to complete the enforced assimilation. It is only in the earlier stages that any stand can be successfully made against the encroachment. The demand that all other people shall resemble ourselves grows by what it feeds on. If resistance waits till life is reduced nearly to one uniform type, all deviations from that type will come to be considered impious, immoral, even monstrous and contrary to nature. Mankind speedily becomes unable to conceive diversity when they have been for some time unaccustomed to see it.

May is Mental Health Month. Make it count!