October is National Depression and Mental Health Awareness and Screening Month, an important time for promoting understanding, reducing stigma, and encouraging individuals to seek help for mental health challenges. Locally and globally, mental illness is surrounded by misunderstanding, fear, and silence. 

Conditions such as depression and schizophrenia are too often met with judgment rather than compassion, leaving many to suffer alone rather than access the care they need. Johnson & Johnson mental health advocate and patient engagement manager Reinette Joubert believes this silence is not due to a lack of awareness, but because stigma is deeply woven into cultural and social beliefs.

“In many communities, mental illness is still viewed through a spiritual lens or seen as a sign of weakness, or attributed to witchcraft or an ancestral calling,” said Joubert. “This fuels shame and discourages open dialogue.”

People tend to shy away from things they don’t understand, she added. 

“That’s why the stigma remains. It is time to replace stigma with understanding and to start honest, compassionate conversations that bridge the gap between culture and clinical care.

‘In South Africa, there’s only about one psychiatrist per 100,000 people’

“When we talk about structural stigma, it’s embedded in our healthcare system, where mental health services are underfunded and there’s a shortage of professionals. In South Africa, there’s only about one psychiatrist per 100,000 people.”

Mental illness stigma operates on three levels. It can be categorised into structural, public, and personal aspects, and all three can reinforce one another in challenging and potentially harmful ways. 

Structural stigma manifests in laws, policies, and practices that discriminate, such as limitations on insurance coverage or biased human capital management practices within employers. Public stigma can include the attitudes, approaches to, and subsequent behavioural anomalies of educators, employers, medical professionals, and the media towards persons challenged with mental illness.

The are different ways to end mental health stigma. Photo: childrens.com

Personal stigma is the internalisation of these perspectives and directed behaviours. This can lower self-worth and prevent individuals from seeking help.

“Instead of focusing on the negative side of mental illness, we should bring stories of hope because there is hope. Most mental health conditions, including schizophrenia, are treatable,” said Joubert.

“We need to share lived experiences that show people living full, successful lives despite their diagnoses. These stories inspire understanding and reduce fear.”

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OFM News/Zenande Mpame mvh