Analyses of employment incentives and barriers for individuals with psychiatric disabilities.

Objective: Individuals with psychiatric disabilities experience 90% unemployment rates; however, individuals experience 61% employment rates when engaged in high-fidelity individual placement and support programs. To build on current research of variables influencing employment outcomes, we hypothesized that an Incentive factor and a Barrier factor are related to employment status. This mixed method study developed the Employment Commitment Measure (ECM) and explored the correlation between employment commitment and employment status.

SELF-STIGMA AND COMING OUT ABOUT ONE'S MENTAL ILLNESS.

Self-stigma can undermine self-esteem and self-efficacy of people with serious mental illness. Coming out may be one way of handling self-stigma and it was expected that coming out would mediate the effects of self-stigma on quality of life. This study compares coming out to other approaches of controlling self-stigma.

Self-stigma, group identification, perceived legitimacy of discrimination and mental health service use.

Stigma may interfere with mental health service use. We measured self-stigma and stigma-related cognitions (group identification and perceived legitimacy of discrimination) at baseline in 85 people with schizophrenia, schizoaffective or affective disorders. After 6 months, 75 (88%) had reported use of mental health services.

A stress-coping model of mental illness stigma: I. Predictors of cognitive stress appraisal.

Stigma can be a major stressor for individuals with schizophrenia and other mental illnesses. It is unclear, however, why some stigmatized individuals appraise stigma as more stressful, while others feel they can cope with the potential harm posed by public prejudice. We tested the hypothesis that the level of perceived public stigma and personal factors such as rejection sensitivity, perceived legitimacy of discrimination and ingroup perceptions (group value; group identification; entitativity, or the perception of the ingroup of people with mental illness as a coherent unit) predict the cognitive appraisal of stigma as a stressor.

What lessons do coming out as gay men or lesbians have for people stigmatized by mental illness?

Goffman (Stigma: Notes on the management of spoiled identity, Prentice-Hall Inc., Englewood Cliffs, NH, 1963) distinguished stigmatized groups as discredited (with relatively obvious marks such as people of color or gender) or discreditable (without obvious marks, causing stigma to be largely hidden). Like gay men and lesbians, people with various mental illnesses can opt to stay in the closet about these conditions in order to avoid corresponding prejudice and discrimination.

Randomized clinical trial of an Internet-based depression prevention program for adolescents (Project CATCH-IT) in primary care: 12-week outcomes.

Objective: The authors sought to evaluate 2 approaches with varying time and complexity in engaging adolescents with an Internet-based preventive intervention for depression in primary care. The authors conducted a randomized controlled trial comparing primary care physician motivational interview (MI, 5-10 minutes) + Internet program versus brief advice (BA, 1-2 minutes) + Internet program.

Setting: Adolescent primary care patients in the United States, aged 14 to 21 years.

Integrative internet-based depression prevention for adolescents: a randomized clinical trial in primary care for vulnerability and protective factors.

Background: Adolescent depression is both a major public health and clinical problem, yet primary care physicians have limited intervention options. We developed two versions of an Internet-based behavioral intervention to prevent the onset of major depression and compared them in a randomized clinical trial in 13 US primary care practices.

Methods: We enrolled 84 adolescents at risk for developing major depression and randomly assigned them to two groups: brief advice (BA; 1-2 minutes) + Internet program versus motivational interview (MI; 5-15 minutes) + Internet program.

Understanding and influencing the stigma of mental illness.

Life goals and the opportunities that define them are impaired by the stigma of mental illness. Three kinds of stigma may act as barriers to personal aspirations: public stigma, self-stigma, and label avoidance. Challenging mental illness stigm is essential in helping individuals accomplish recovery-related goals.