Structural Stigma – Personal Experience Stories

Access Denied

Imagine being told to sleep on the hospital floor because no beds are available or seeking a treatment for your illness that’s both proven and recommended but unavailable because of a lack of funding and training. People living with mental health problems or illnesses and/or substance use concerns have greater difficulty accessing services compared to the general population, due in large part to resource maldistribution, denial of care, and fragmented care.

To get a better understanding of the topic we explore in Access Denied – interview-based video, we also spoke with Karen Shin and Javeed Sukhera about their first-hand experiences with this issue.

Less Than

Structural stigma is expressed when people with mental health problems or illnesses and/or substance use concerns systematically receive a lower quality of care. Three key areas of poor health-care quality are practitioner practices, negative experiences, and coercive approaches. For service users, a lack of meaningful, timely care, centred around the needs of the individual, is a pervasive problem.

To get a better understanding of the topic we explore in Less Than – interview-based video, we also spoke with Samaria Nancy Cardinal and Don Mahleka about what quality care means to them, and what progress can look like.

A Way Forward

As important as it is to understand how structural stigma surfaces in healthcare environments, it’s equally as important to explore the ways in which structural stigma can be addressed and dismantled. To get a better understanding of the topic we explore in A Way Forward – interview-based video, we also spoke with Rachel Boehm and Amber May LeRoy to hear their experiences and learn more about ongoing efforts to address structural stigma.