Understanding rights – stigma and suicide prevention
From the book – Chapter 32: Rights, Stigma and Suicide Prevention
Rights
People with severe mental disorders often face discrimination in education, employment, and housing; social exclusion; human-rights violations — neglect, abuse, inappropriate confinement.
WHO and other bodies emphasise:
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Community-based care over long-term institutionalisation.
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Respect for autonomy and informed consent.
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Protection from abuse and coercion.
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Integration into society with support.
Families reduce stigma by education, respectful language, and inclusion — not by hiding the person or treating the house as a ward.
Read the full chapter – Chapter 32: Rights, Stigma and Suicide Prevention
Stories from real life
- The Meeting He Did Not Join – Daniel, thirty-four, a logistics supervisor in Nairobi, had been treated for depression for four months and was doing better. He had not told anyone at work.…
- What Farah Said at the Bus Stop – Farah, twenty-two, a college friend of Imran in Karachi, had been quiet for weeks. At the bus stop one evening she said lightly, 'You all would…
- The Room With the Latch – Kofi, thirty, had lived with schizophrenia for ten years in a village outside Kumasi. After his last relapse, his family, frightened by neighbours' talk, kept him…
- Sam Told Nobody at Home – Sam, seventeen, a pupil in Sydney, had told two friends that he was a boy, though everyone at home still used a different name. When he…
More on this topic: Mental health crisis and suicide prevention – what to do
More questions
- Who is pushed further out?
- Understanding suicide prevention – stigma and suicide prevention
- What a family can actually do?
- Understanding understanding stigma
- The harm stigma does – understanding stigma
- Where stigma comes from?
- How to challenge stigma?
- As an individual – how to challenge stigma
- As a parent or teacher – how to challenge stigma
- In the media – how to challenge stigma