InvisALERT Solutions – ObservSMART

Archive for the ‘Summer 2022 Issue’ Category

They Are Us

If the last two years have shown us anything it has shown us how resilient we are. It has also reminded us all just how vulnerable we can be. These are two important truths that are too often overlooked, forgotten, or denied. As we strive to build mental health awareness in our communities, it is...

Acknowledging the Effects of Intersectional Stigmatization

Our work is devoted to helping health professionals learn different types of stigmas, recognize the effects of stigmatization, and guiding the implementation of effective strategies to assess and address those stigmas in a variety of settings. This article outlines the most common forms of mental...

Understanding the Impact of Stigma: The Balance Between Choice and Accountability

In contrast to today’s social media saturation, the burgeoning technology of the mid-2,000s was a time of comparative innocence. Similarly, candid conversations around mental health were virtually non-existent. Fewer than five years out of college, I’d recently been forced to resign from my...

Some Thoughts Regarding Stigma: The Often Silent Obstacle to Mental Health and Substance Care Among African Americans

The term stigma according to the Merriam Webster dictionary is Greek or Latin and indicates “a mark of shame or discredit.” It most often refers to “a set of negative and often unfair beliefs that a society or group of people have about something.” When addressing the concept of stigma...

Coordinated Behavioral Care’s Mission to Destigmatize Workplace Mental Health

When Emily Grossman began work as Training Institute Manager at Coordinated Behavioral Care (CBC), she had the same fear that had plagued her at the start of other jobs. As a person who is “out” about living with mental illness, she had always worried whether this new working environment would...

From the Desk of Dr. Max, WellLife Network: Stigma and Mental Illness

Stigma continues to be an obstacle for many individuals struggling with emotional health challenges. Seeking help for these challenges is additionally made more difficult with the limited quality of best practice resources. Stigma, whether community or self-based, inhibits many from even...

Breaking Down Barriers to Using Social Determinants of Health Data

This is the time to use technology to overcome the barriers in integrating social determinants of health (SdoH) information into healthcare but ensuring that infrastructure and standardization is in place will be a joint effort. If one were to think about individual health, you might think...

Stigma Is Being Used as a Political Weapon: Reject It

I and many others have said it before but, as recent events make clear, we will have to say it again and again and again: Mental illness is not the cause of mass murder in the United States. The continuing assertion by the political right that it is has become a core element of the vituperative...

Intersectionality in Behavioral Health: Serving Those with Membership in Multiple Stigmatized Groups

What are your social identities? How do you identify and how does the world see you? “Intersectionality, a term coined by legal scholar Kimberlé Crenshaw, emphasizes the “multidimensionality” of oppressed people’s lived experiences and recognizes how various types of oppression frequently...

Consumer Perspectives: Overcoming the Stigma of Mental Health, Chronic Illness, and Homelessness

This article is part of a quarterly series giving voice to the perspectives of individuals with lived experiences as they share their opinions on a particular topic. The authors are served by Services for the UnderServed (S:US), a New York City-based nonprofit that is committed to giving every New...