Psychiatric Stigma and the Role of the Psychiatrist

In 1996 the World Psychiatric I-Association (WPA) in conjunction with Lilly Pharmaceuticals announced the launch of a co-ordinated, multidisciplinary approach to counter the stigma of mental illness. In Australia a similar initiative – albeit on a much smaller scale – began six years ago with the establishment of ‘STIGMA’ (‘Stereotypes and Tags Interest Group in the Mental Health Arena’). The STIGMA Group was consulted to determine Australian consumer participation in the WPA initiative. The following paper describes how the STIGMA group emerged out of a preoccupation with public portrayals of psychiatric patients, their families and psychiatric professionals to become a broad group of stakeholders studying psychiatric stigma and possible ways of combating it. To our knowledge, an ongoing group devoted to the study of stigma had no precedent locally or overseas. It is beyond the scope of this paper to describe the origins, phenomenon and painful consequences of stigmatising individuals with mental illness and their families which has been considered in detail elsewhere 1–3.