Supporting Peers to Advocate for Equal Rights and a Recovery-Based
Mental Health System
Address Discrimination
Reframe Mental Health Issues to Address Discrimination!
Find your NH Senator, NH Representative, US Senator and/or US Representative.
Reframe Stigma as Discrimination
We need to reframe stigma as discrimination so more people understand what it's like for people with mental health conditions.
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People with mental health conditions are stereotyped as behaving undesirably, causing other people to act in a fearful or prejudicial manner toward them. Due to discrimination, many who have mental health conditions try to hide it from family, friends or the community. Discriminatory attitudes surrounding mental health can cause barriers to treatment. In some of its manifestations, discrimination against people with mental health conditions involves a violation of civil or human rights.
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People with mental health conditions are often depicted as being incapable of having a "normal" life and are often addressed using derogatory terms. Self-discrimination is the shame experienced by persons labeled as mentally ill. Social exclusion results from a belief that people with mental health conditions have control over themselves when they are in the midst of a relapse. How often have people urged to "pull themselves together"?
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Source: Wikipedia
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Highlight Contributions that People with Mental Health Conditions Make to Communities
Our peers work at local employers; serve on non-profit boards; recover through artwork and crafts; etc.
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Throughout history, prominent artists and writers experienced mental health conditions: Michelangelo, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven, Franz Liszt, Vincent Van Gogh, Ernest Hemingway, Virginia Woolf, Robert Schumann, Patty Duke Astin, Fisher, Demi Lovato, Kanye West, Stephen Fry, etc.
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Source: Wikipedia
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