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Mental illness remains a pervasive social issue that aff ects the well-being of millions of individuals globally. Despite the overall prevalence of mental illness, increasing numbers of individuals needing mental health treatment do not receive it. Mental Health Stigma (MHS) has been proposed as a signifi cant barrier to seeking/obtaining mental health treatment. Mounting evidence suggests that MHS is experienced in virtually all life domains and that it may signifi cantly influence multiple health outcomes, including treatment seeking behavior. The current review paper uniquely contributes to the literature on MHS in at least four ways. First, this paper provides a recent overview of the prevalence and social costs of mental illness in society. Second, this paper presents a current literature review of MHS and helps to elucidate the impact of MHS on a range of individual outcomes, including psychological and physical health. Third, this paper specifically reviews existing literature on understanding the relationship between MHS and treatment seeking behavior. This is the fi rst known review paper to focus specifi cally on the MHS–treatment seeking relationship. Finally, the paper presents implications for future research on MHS and treatment seeking which may lead to the development of theory-based interventions to address MHS in clinical practice.
Sickel et al. (Mon,) studied this question.