In this blog post and guide, Dr. Stephen Parkin shares his observations about the use of stigmatising words and phrases in academic writing, and offers a list of person-centred and pragmatic alternatives.

The need to change our language in relation to people who use drugs has become an increasing topic of discussion, but there is still a long way to go. People who use drugs are highly diverse and their relationship with drug use takes many different forms. Current prohibitionist approaches to drug use and ‘war on drugs’ rhetoric do little to encourage language that acknowledges this. Instead, it promotes and maintains negative stereotypes that construct people who use drugs as morally flawed, inferior, unreliable, and dangerous.

Language does not standstill. It is dynamic, and the language and...

Stigma among healthcare providers is a barrier to the effective delivery of mental health services in primary care. Few studies have been conducted in primary care settings comparing the attitudes of healthcare providers and experiences of people with mental illness who are service users in those facilities. Such research is necessary across diverse global settings to characterize stigma and inform effective stigma reduction.

Qualitative research was conducted on mental illness stigma in primary care settings in one low-income country (Nepal), two lower-middle income countries (India, Tunisia...

Stigma is a major barrier to the well-being and recovery of people with lived and living experience of substance use disorders.

This animated video about two friends, Alex and Sam, explores the devastating impact of substance use stigma and how to challenge it in our communities.

Drawing on themes from CCSA’s qualitative research on stigma, “My Journey Starts with Compassion” tells a story about friendship, kindness and changing negative perceptions of people who use substances.

A special issue of the International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction will be devoted to empirical papers and related to Stigma, Mental Illness and Substance Use.

The special issue is intended to highlight a broad range of issues, perspectives and stigma reduction approaches from anthropology, history, medicine, policy sciences, psychiatry, psychology, public health, social sciences. The International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction are particularly interested in manuscripts that discuss and evaluate and different perspectives, methods and strategies to comprehend and reduce...