Health care providers discriminate

Discrimination against those with DSM labels in the health professions. Health care providers discriminate.

Yes, this is generally true among mental health professionals as well as health professionals and healers in general. It’s true among psychiatrists and therapists, and social workers too. It’s true among those who are part of the medical model and it’s true of those who are critical of psychiatric drugs as well. Discrimination in mental health professionals runs the entire spectrum of care.

Marvin Ross talks about this in an article on Huffington Post:

Mentioning health care professionals along with discrimination and mental illness, is likely surprising for many. It certainly was to me when I first encountered a study called “Community Attitudes Towards People With Schizophrenia.” Conducted in Alberta as part of the World Psychiatric Association’s Global Campaign to Fight Stigma and Discrimination, the results, for the general population were encouraging. Researchers, Dr. Heather Stuart and Dr. Julio Arboleda-Flôrez, found “most respondents were relatively well-informed and progressive in their reported understanding of schizophrenia and its treatment.”

What was concerning was their finding that those who work with the mentally ill were expected to be more tolerant but they were not. The authors stated “these findings support the perceptions of those with schizophrenia that their most stigmatizing experiences occur within the mental health provider community, in which they have their most frequent contacts.” (Page 5 of the study). That was published in 2001 and the situation has not improved. read more

The above is very important because it affects peoples entire well-being. A labeled person won’t get as good care for ANY kind of medical condition. This study is about health care providers in general. People DIE because of this. It’s not even that unusual. Sometimes it’s because complications caused by psychiatric drugs are ignored because the psychiatric patient’s report  is not thought credible. There are layers and layers of ugliness here.

I’ve written about my own experience, as a professional and as a person labeled with a “serious mental illness.”

I can attest to the fact that depending on how I choose to identify myself I am treated radically differently.

And if anyone is curious…MENTAL PATIENT beats mental health professional. I lose any credibility of being a professional the minute I mention a psychiatric history among many health care professionals. There is a palpable change in the way these folks communicate with if I change my identification during the conversation. I am quickly and completely dismissed.

I’ve written many pieces on this phenomena as it sickens me every time I think of it.

It’s a sad reality. It has simply been best for me not to share the psychiatric history in most instances as it almost guarantees bad treatment. For many this is a very difficult thing to do. If one is taking psych drugs and seeking medical care it’s not really possible to feel safe without speaking openly about our circumstances. It’s tragic when we need help most, we often do not find safety.

It is possible to learn how to use our “radar” for figuring out who it’s safe to talk to when one has the luxury of deciding whether or not to disclose, but one must learn discernment. This takes time and skill both.

This phenomena of health care providers of all stripes discriminating against those labeled by psychiatry must change if we expect people to ever recover. The worst thing someone in mental distress can come up against is this sort of dehumanizing treatment from other human beings who are supposed to be “caring” for us.

We must seek out people who will treat us as equals.

This is perhaps the biggest reason the peer support movement is gaining such popularity. The next phase for peer workers is equal pay as the other clinicians on the team. Peer support is likely the best support someone in distress can get in many circumstances and yet those giving it are generally also not treated as well as the members of staff with degrees behind their names.

Articles about my personal experience with this phenomena: Health care providers discriminate

• The mental health professional and the patient (wrapped into one).
• Stigma alive and well among mental health professionals

When I’ve published about this phenomena in the past quite a few people with a status like mine, both mental health professional and a history of “mental patient,” wrote to me saying they too have found it a tricky and disturbing line they must walk.

As long as we continue to label people as ill and abnormal due to mental distress this will continue.

We create a class of people who aren’t quite like everyone else. The most ridiculous part being that psychiatry is moving towards labeling everyone with the march towards medicalizing normal.

I say all of the above about discrimination against people who’ve been given DSM labels, realizing there are well-intentioned people everywhere.

As labeled people it’s important to find those who can help us heal from our traumatic histories. It is with that faith that I share what I share. We find who and what we must to heal and it may require leaving the system entirely.

Too many of the initially well-intentioned in the system find it more convenient to remain in denial. It’s simply (a lot) easier to ignore what goes on under their noses. Once they do that they become part of the prevailing darkness themselves.

first published 2012. Update 2025

I’ve written a more developed piece on this issue now. Please see that article too: Bridging the Patient-Professional Divide 

Update: and more recently this: To see a professional or not? (Health care providers discriminate)

“In the west the almighty “professional” is the guru. The educated “expert,” in general, takes on many different guises but we are systematically taught not to trust ourselves and to, instead, submit to the expert opinions of people who do not know us and who, all too often, believe they know far more than they actually do. The party line in mental health care is that we should find a professional for just about everything. What happens if an appropriate professional is not available? The reality on the ground is that is often the case as much as we’d like to think otherwise.” read more

a collection: About having been both a mental health professional and a psych patient

The Mental (Illness) system and empowering thoughts on alternatives

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