Monday, March 22, 2004

Assessing the stigma of mental illness (New Zealand)
Massey Univeristy press release - "The effort to raise the public awareness of mental health in New Zealand, including a series of prime-time television commercials, has caught the attention of researchers in the USA. New Zealand will participate in an international mental health study, with a focus on the stigma of mental health, funded by the Fogarty International Centre of the US National Institutes of Health and led by researchers at Indiana University. ... The project will examine public perceptions of the causes of mental illness and its effects on people, the degree of stigmatisation associated with mental illness, tolerance of people with mental illness, the government's responsibilities to these people and the degree of coercion appropriate to make them seek treatment."