Author: Vijay Kumar student in 1st year of Masters of Science in Nursing (MScN) at the School of Nursing and Midwifery, The Aga Khan University, Karachi, Pakistan. He did a Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BScN) from Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences (LUMHS), Jamshoro, Pakistan.
Mental and physical illnesses are handled equally by medical professionals, but the question arises: "After treatment and rehabilitation, "do common people accept mentally ill patients in society"? This is a very serious stigma regarding society's acceptance, and patients struggle to get back to their normal lives. In a few Asian countries, including Pakistan, the social acceptance of mentally ill patients is a question mark. In Pakistan, mental illnesses such as depression, anxiety, schizophrenia, mania, bipolar disorder, and personality disorder are common. Any person can suffer from these diseases due to many issues, i.e., losing a beloved person, ignorance, stress, and so on, because it is human nature to have fewer coping skills, but these are just like other physical diseases.
In our society, either people do not take mentally ill patients to the hospital or they do so when the disease worsens. These diseases are treatable, and patients can spend their lives happily after their recovery. When patients come after recovery from mental illness, people in society fear and assume that they may get hurt by their aggressive behavior. They start ignoring them and deny participating in any social activities. This discrimination leads to anger, low self-esteem, and loneliness on the patient's side. Patients struggle to cope with this situation and fail most of the time. In this ignorance, the recurrence of disease occurs, and that person is hospitalized again and again, even with more severe symptoms. People do not consider mental illness to be treatable. This behavior is observed not only in illiterate people but also in many educated people, which is a very embarrassing thing.
However, mental illness is not a fault, but it needs awareness, which is very important for the sake of humanity. Mental health information should be included in educational courses in all disciplines because this will be the only way to become aware. People should help the recovered patients get their lives back on track by involving them in gatherings, festivals, and any social activities. They should be treated like normal humans. Never realized that they were mentally ill patients. Health professionals have the responsibility to educate patients' families carefully and conduct an awareness program in the community. Social and electronic media and the government can play a vital role in raising awareness. In this way, we can reduce the struggle of mentally recovered patients to accept socially.
References
Husain, M. O., Zehra, S. S., Umer, M., Kiran, T., Husain, M., Soomro, M., ... & Husain, N. (2020). Stigma toward mental and physical illness: attitudes of healthcare professionals, healthcare students and the general public in Pakistan. BJPsych open, 6(5), e81.
Yilmaz, E.; Okanli, A. The Effect of Internalized Stigma on the Adherence to Treatment in Patients With Schizophrenia. Arch. Psychiatr. Nurs. 2015, 29, 297–301.
Zhang, Z., Sun, K., Jatchavala, C., Koh, J., Chia, Y., Bose, J., ... & Ho, R. (2020). Overview of stigma against psychiatric illnesses and advancements of anti-stigma activities in six Asian societies. International journal of environmental research and public health, 17(1), 280.
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