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Stigma is a set of negative and frequently unfair beliefs that a society or group of people have about something. 

Specifically, mental health stigma refers to the stigma attached to mental health conditions—inclusive of substance use disorders and the discrimination that can happen to people who are living with them. 

For mental health specifically, stigma tends to be negative stereotypes such as: people with mental health are violent. 

It can really make problems worse as it may stop a person from appropriately recognizing their illness or being insightful about those things, and this can certainly impact one's ability to function. 

Most of us who speak Spanish, we do have strong family beliefs and strong community beliefs. Those types of things are very positive, can also be very negative when it comes to seeking mental health treatment. 

There is a long history of mistreatment of African-Americans in healthcare which has led to poor outcomes and less access to care and I think in those communities, mental health issues are often compounded by the psychological stress of systemic racism and mistrust.

 We have a saying: “lo que pasa en casa se queda en casa” , which means “what happens at home stays at home”. And we’re very private, especially when it comes to personal and sometimes family issues.

Early studies of mental illness were really designed to indicate that African-Americans had higher rates of mental illness than non-African-Americans. This has certainly later been refuted in a multitude of studies, but the damage was really done.

Because of stigma, African-Americans have been given the diagnosis of schizophrenia more so than other affective disorders like bipolar disorder, despite presenting with the same symptoms. 

Some of the studies show only one in three black or African-Americans with mental health issues ever receive appropriate treatment, either because of not seeking that treatment out or not being properly engaged in the healthcare continuum or being adherent to the recommendation. So I think there there's large impacts and there's multiple issues that kind of cause that.

Humana is joining the fight to reduce stigma in many ways, ensuring that the providers that we contract with and the folks that they bring on board do receive education in cultural humility, help with interpretation services, and they’re also doing a lot of research on population health strategies and been looking at how to give back to communities. 

We're taking a multi-prong approach because we understand that stigma is multifactorial, so we're addressing those things head-on. 

Humana’s focus is really on integrating behavioral health with physical health is probably the most impactful way of impacting and fighting stigma. The integration of Behavioral Health and physical health shows the equal importance of the two, as well as the understanding of the impact that one has towards the other. 

So it's really important that as a provider community, you know, we all stick together, right. No one person has the solution.  

I think to make this point well, it’s really important that when we're with those patients in our business, that we slow down a little bit and really engage those individuals.

I would encourage other physicians who want to fight against stigma just to simply be conscious of their language, to continue to show compassion for those with mental illness, and to use their voices to advocate for changes in systems in order to provide more access to Quality Health Care for people with mental Illness.

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