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The stigma of psychiatric in-patient care

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Jennie McCarthy
Affiliation:
Arundel House, Sefton General Hospital, Smithdown Road, Liverpool L15 2LF
Richard Prettyman
Affiliation:
Department of Health Care of the Elderly, University Hospital, Nottingham NG7 2UH
Trevor Friedman
Affiliation:
Leicester General Hospital, Gwendolen Road, Leicester LE5 4PW
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Abstract

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The differences in attitudes to their illness between selected groups of medical and psychiatric in-patients admitted to units on the same hospital site were investigated. Patients new to the services were asked about their willingness to disclose information about their admission to hospital and their diagnosis to family members, friends and people at work. Psychiatric patients were more likely to want to keep their admission and diagnosis a secret. They were also less sure of the nature of their diagnosis and the necessity of their admission. The results suggest that wider public education is needed to reduce the stigma of mental Illness.

Type
Original Papers
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1995

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