While on her psychiatry rotation, med student Natalie Wilcox, experienced first hand the stigma that surrounds psychiatric diagnoses. However, not only did she see how stigma affects patients, but she noticed that it also affects medical students and health professionals in the way they treat patients with addictions and mental illnesses, as well as the way they view and value the psychiatry profession. Read more here: "Psychiatry is Devalued: And Patients Suffer Because of It".
"Instantly the man straightened up, “So you think it’s the ‘D word?’ I really don’t want that diagnosis.” I had never heard of depression referred to as the “D word,” but it definitely struck a chord with me. This man was so uncomfortable with the idea of being associated with a mental health diagnosis that he couldn’t say the name. At one facility where I rotated, psychiatric services were hidden in a corridor known as “behavioral health.” Patients with diagnosed mental health issues saw “stress management” workers, a title intended to disguise psychologists and psychiatrists.
How can patients be expected to feel comfortable with a psychiatric diagnosis if clinics themselves refuse to identify the services as such? Such euphemistic doublespeak only serves to undermine the progress made in psychiatric care and reinforce the stereotypes associated with mental illness and its methods of treatment."
"Instantly the man straightened up, “So you think it’s the ‘D word?’ I really don’t want that diagnosis.” I had never heard of depression referred to as the “D word,” but it definitely struck a chord with me. This man was so uncomfortable with the idea of being associated with a mental health diagnosis that he couldn’t say the name. At one facility where I rotated, psychiatric services were hidden in a corridor known as “behavioral health.” Patients with diagnosed mental health issues saw “stress management” workers, a title intended to disguise psychologists and psychiatrists.
How can patients be expected to feel comfortable with a psychiatric diagnosis if clinics themselves refuse to identify the services as such? Such euphemistic doublespeak only serves to undermine the progress made in psychiatric care and reinforce the stereotypes associated with mental illness and its methods of treatment."
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