Degree Name
Master of Science in Education
Department or Program
Rehabilitation Administration and Services
Advisor
Nichols, Janet L
Abstract
People with a mental illness suffer from not only the disease itself but from certain stigmas that are held against them. Stigma’s doesn't only add to problems to these individuals' but also its impact them in a negative way. The research focuses on the different dynamics of stigmas of how they're affecting the mental health communities in low-income communities. The two stigmas discussed in the study will be public and self-stigma. Public stigma refers to a set of negative attitudes and beliefs that motivate individuals to fear, reject, avoid, and discriminate against people with mental illness (Corrigan & Penn 2010). Self-stigma prevents people from getting the help they're needing, being internalized by their mental illness, and suffering from the perception of others. The surveys were used in the research to focus on respondents over the age of 18. The respondents are people who didn't receive mental health services in the years 2017 and 2018. The surveys show the reasons why these respondents didn't receive these services. The research was to compare the disadvantages of a person who lives in a low-income community with a severe mental illness, to a person who had lived in a better society that also suffers a severe mental illness.