Fighting Stigmatization in Mental Illnesses: Professional Who Have a Key Role

Individuals suffering from mental illness are often regarded as outside of the norm and society is unsure of what to do with such people as they are considered to be dangerous and destructive to those around them. Because these behaviors are unacceptable by society, a form of stigmatization (labeling) is applied to individuals with mental illness. Stigmatization is deemed as the devaluation of a person in society because of his/her maladaptive behaviors inconsistent with social norms and criteria and the evaluation of him/her negatively as imperfect and discredited. As a result of stigmatization, people with mental illness and their family are robbed of the opportunities that define a quality life: housing, use to health care, application, jobs, and limitation of social relations. When society's attitudes and beliefs adversely affect the quality of life of individuals with mental illness, the struggle against stigmatization is unavoidable. Knowing of the beliefs and attitudes of professional leadership groups on mental illness is important both for the treatment and rehabilitation of mental diseases. Professional leadership groups have an important place in society because of their social influence and possibility to change quickly and effectively negative attitudes in society. The purpose of this article is to why the teachers, health workers, police, religious leaders, headmen and media workers are important in the fight against stigmatization in the direction of current literature