Research

The stigma of schizophrenia from patients' and relatives' view: A pilot study in an Italian rehabilitation residential care unit

Chiara Buizza¹, Beate Schulze², Elena Bertocchi³, Giuseppe Rossi⁴, Alberto Ghilardi⁵ and Rosaria Pioli⁶

¹  Clinical Psychology Section, Faculty of Medicine, University of Brescia, Brescia, Italy

²  Public Mental Health Research Group, University of Zurich, Department of General and Social Psychiatry, Zurich, Switzerland

³  Psychosocial Rehabilitation Unit, IRCCS "Centro S. Giovanni di Dio" Fatebenefratelli, Brescia, Italy

⁴  Psychosocial Rehabilitation Unit, IRCCS "Centro S. Giovanni di Dio" Fatebenefratelli, Brescia, Italy

⁵  Clinical Psychology Section, Faculty of Medicine, University of Brescia, Brescia, Italy

⁶  Psychosocial Rehabilitation Unit, IRCCS "Centro S. Giovanni di Dio" Fatebenefratelli, Brescia, Italy

Clinical Practice and Epidemiology in Mental Health 2007, 3:23doi:10.1186/1745-0179-3-23

Published:	29 October 2007

Abstract

Objective

To identify the constituent elements of the stigma from the perspective of those having first-hand experiences of it.

Methods

Subjective experiences of stigma were explored in six focus groups: three with people suffering from schizophrenia and three with patients' relatives. Focus group sessions were tape-recorded, transcribed and analyzed by means of an inductive method, forming categories from the texts, as a basis for coding. Analysis aimed at establishing a typology of stigmatization experiences from the spoken words of the focus group participants.

Results

Four dimensions of stigma were identified: access to social roles; internalization of stigma; quality of mental health services, public image of mental illness.

Conclusion

The most frequently found topics concerned experiences of marginalization and discrimination that people with schizophrenia experience in their daily life. These results mirror the findings of similar studies obtained in other cultural contexts.