Stigma in context of professional psychological help seeking

Abstract

Objective The purpose of this article was to review existing literature in topic about effects of stigma on psychological help seeking in mental health context by examining structure and effects of each type of stigma in causal relationship and also explore the way to mitigatestigma.

Materials and methods Articles was obtained by searching through databases for example PSYCInfo, Scopus, ProQuest and department of mental health database where keywords are çstigma,é çstigmatized,é and çstigma of seeking help.é

Results Stigma as a barrier to help seeking was an issue of interest in Thailand as can be seen from some published articles, however there were still lack of an empirical research. After a thorough review articles, we found that there were 3 different types of stigma i.e., public stigma, personal stigma, and self-stigma. Each type had unique effect on psychological help seeking. This article also summaried ways to reduce stigma of seeking psychological help.

Conclusion Stigma of seeking help was one of the factors that make people do not seek psychological help. Stigma of seeking help comprised of 3 types which had an effect on both attitude and intention to seek help. There were three ways to mitigate effects of stigma on psychological help seeking which include education, contact, and protest.