Understanding mental health is important to raising a healthy child. Here’s how you can break down the stereotypes surrounding counseling and therapy and get the help you need for yourself or your child.
Understanding mental health is important to raising a healthy child. Here’s how you can break down the stereotypes surrounding counseling and therapy and get the help you need for yourself or your child.
By India Today Web DeskWhen it comes to mental health and its treatment, certain stigmas and stereotypes persist. It may come as a surprise, but despite so much awareness being spread about mental health awareness and its eventual treatment – the stigma and stereotypes do not go away. It may be unfortunate, but it is a bitter truth that stereotypes continue to exist.
Needless to say, some harmful stigma exists which may include the following:
- reluctance to seek help or treatment
- lack of understanding by family, friends, co-workers
- fewer opportunities for work and other social activities
- Bullying, harassment or physical violence of any kind
- a belief that you cannot succeed at certain challenges
- a firm belief that you cannot improve your situation
However, the good news is, that’s not where it ends. Stigmas and stereotypes related to mental health can be tackled with counseling as well.
There is a far-reaching belief that simply discussing mental health is enough to reduce stigma. And these days, that discussion is unfortunately often limited to social media posts that merely demand attention.
On the other hand, researchers suggest that the effectiveness of these campaigns is often limited and that more should be done to ensure that such stigma or stereotypes are removed.
To truly break down the stereotypes around counseling and therapy, it has to be addressed on many levels. This includes:
1. Bringing systemic change
Bringing about a systemic change is the first step towards reducing stereotypes. Discrimination is an everyday reality, especially for people with mental disabilities.
To be able to truly address stigma, meaningfully address the dignity and rights of people with disabilities including substantially increased access to education, housing, workplace as well as healthcare such as treatment for mental health disorders need to.
2. Grants and More Research
More research is needed to better understand the importance of mental health and psychological counselling, to increase our knowledge of the conditions and to ensure that the effectiveness of counseling is improving, as well as more funding to make treatment more accessible .
3. Mental Health Literacy
Educating people about mental health and helping them understand that such illnesses can be addressed and cured is a message that needs to be conveyed clearly.
Merely being “aware” of mental health won’t help much. People should be empowered to take control of their own mental health such as knowing where to seek help and of course how to advocate for themselves.
4. Increased Awareness
For many people, mental health is still somewhat of a mystery and especially regarding the fact that it can be addressed through medical help. By becoming more visible and active in their own communities, health care professionals can help reduce the fear of the unknown.
For some communities who are distrustful of the healthcare system, it may prove beneficial to visit or see a healthcare professional who is similar to them.
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We need to understand that judgments of others always stem from a certain lack of understanding rather than from information gathered based on facts.
The most important aspect is to learn to accept your condition and recognize what is needed of you to treat it, get help and of course help educate others. Activities like this can help make a big difference.
– Written by Chetan Jaiswal, Founder & CEO, MyPeegu
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