The Lancet Commission on ending stigma and discrimination in mental health.

It is time to end all forms of stigma and discrimination against people with mental health conditions, for whom there is double jeopardy: the impact of the primary condition and the severe consequences of stigma. Indeed, many people describe stigma as being worse than the condition itself. This Lancet Commission report is the result of a collaboration of more than 50 people worldwide. It brings together evidence and experience of the impact of stigma and discrimination and successful interventions for stigma reduction. We include material that brings alive the voices of people with lived experience of mental health conditions (PWLE). This is right in principle because we agree with the view of nothing about us without us. It is right in practice because the evidence summarised in this report shows that PWLE are the key change agents for stigma reduction. For these reasons, this report has been co-produced by people who have such lived experience and others who do not. Their voices whisper, speak, and shout in the poems, testimonies, and quotations. Law and policy are essential but insufficient to end stigma and discrimination in mental healthIt is a terrible indictment on us as humans that we stigmatise and discriminate against individuals or groups because of their perceived difference or “otherness”. We welcome this new Lancet Commission1 and its aim to end stigma and discrimination in mental health, rather than merely reduce it. The Commission comes at a time when mental health movements are gaining momentum globally, and the UN and its agencies are advocating greater recognition of mental health and transformed mental health services. Full-Text PDF Centring lived experience in anti-stigma programmesWe welcome the Lancet Commission on ending stigma and discrimination in mental health by Graham Thornicroft, Charlene Sunkel, and colleagues.1 Ending stigma and discrimination in mental health is an ambitious request, but the Commission's six goals for stigma reduction and eight recommendations for action by global organisations, governments, employers, the health-care and social-care sectors, the media, people with lived experience, local communities, and civil society provide a blueprint for the way forwards “to act now to stop stigma and start inclusion”. Full-Text PDF Can we end stigma and discrimination in mental health?“I can't open up about it at work since companies still have the perception that people with mental illness are unstable and unable to function normally” Full-Text PDF