In yesterday’s blog post, I included a 1998 article about the four walls to mental health recovery—Medical Model, Professionalism, Our Building, and Stigma and Prejudice. In this blog post, I look at one of our Theme films in which four of our Recovery Voices (interviewees) talk about matters related to stigma.
Stigma [6 films, 10’56”]
Our interviewees talk about various aspects relating to the stigmatisation of people who have had a past drug or alcohol problem. David McCartney describes the negative reactions of a doctor who was assessing him as part of the process of determining whether he was eligible to receive benefits after he had come out of a treatment rehab.
Huseyin relates how difficult it was talking about his past when he worked in the civil service, and then asks whether we are buying into stigma when staff help people leaving a rehab come up with a cover story, rather than teaching them how to disclose about their past.
Wulf describes how during a planning application process relating to NWRC’s new building, some local citizens argued that NWRC members would be responsible for exposing students to drug use—as if university students aren’t more than capable of doing their own drink and drug use without help from ex-addicts.
Wendy Dossett emphasises that recovering people bring a set of life experiences and strengths to a diverse university environment, and should be welcomed in and given a voice. In the last clip, she describes how The University of Chester has become the second university to sign the Recovery Friendly University Pledge, which is a symbolic stand against stigma. Wendy and Wulf discuss why more institutions don’t stand up and fight stigma.