The Effect of Psychoeducation Focused on Reducing Internalized Stigma

In the fight against stigma, the focus should be on the education of individuals diagnosed with mental illness. Psychoeducation has an important place in the treatment and rehabilitation of mental health problems. Psychoeducation is necessary for early recognition of signs and symptoms of diseases, ensuring compliance with treatment, improving coping skills, as well as combating stigma, preventing internalized stigma, and counteracting social stigma. If individuals with mental disorders have adequate knowledge about the causes of stigma, they may be less prone to internalized stigma.

The group most exposed to stigma among mental illnesses is individuals diagnosed with schizophrenia. These individuals avoid treatment due to fear of stigma, which creates a significant obstacle to ensuring their well-being. Internalization of stigma causes feelings of loneliness, anger, helplessness, deterioration in quality of life, and decrease in self-esteem, while at the same time creating a significant barrier to treatment compliance. Compliance problems with treatment: It causes impairments in functionality, relapses and exacerbations, repeated hospitalizations, adverse effects on quality of life and increased mortality rates. The fact that many patients who receive only medical treatment in the treatment of schizophrenia develop negative attitudes towards drug use due to drug side effects and recurrence of disease symptoms reveals that psychosocial approaches should also be given importance in addition to medical treatment. As a result, it is thought that internalized stigma is a significant obstacle to treatment compliance and practices implemented to reduce internalized stigma are effective in increasing treatment compliance.