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IELTS Topic: HEALTH
Reading 1
Sufferers of mental illnesses face discrimination
Original source: The New York Times, HealthDirect
When doctors discriminate
The first time it was an ear, nose and throat doctor. I had an emergency visit for an ear infection, which was causing a level of pain I hadn’t experienced since giving birth. He looked at the list of drugs I was taking for my bipolar disorder and closed my chart.
“I don’t feel comfortable prescribing anything,” he said. “Not with everything else you’re on.” He said it was probably safe to take Tylenol and politely but firmly indicated it was time for me to go. The next day my eardrum ruptured and I was left with minor but permanent hearing loss.
Another time I was lying on the examining table when a gastroenterologist I was seeing for the first time looked at my list of drugs and shook her finger in my face. “You better get yourself together psychologically,” she said, “or your stomach is never going to get any better.”
If you met me, you’d never know I was mentally ill. In fact, I’ve gone through most of my adult life without anyone ever knowing — except when I’ve had to reveal it to a doctor. And that revelation changes everything. It wipes clean the rest of my résumé, my education and my accomplishments; it reduces me to a diagnosis.
I was surprised when, after one of these run-ins, my psycho-pharmacologist said this sort of behaviour was all too common. At least 14 studies have shown that patients with a serious mental illness receive worse medical care than ‘normal’ people. Last year the World Health Organization called the stigma and discrimination endured by people with mental health conditions “a hidden human rights emergency.”
Mentally ill people receive worse medical care from doctors than ‘normal’ people.
Source: En min Shen/ Shutterstock
Mental health stigma is dangerous
Stigma can lead people with mental illness to be discriminated against and miss out on work or housing, bullied or become a victim of violence. It can also mean they don’t seek treatment when they need it.
Stigma exists mainly because some people don’t understand mental illness and can have negative attitudes or beliefs towards it.
Although a few people with mental illness are dangerous, the mentally ill are more often the victims of violence.
Source: Kit8.net/ Shutterstock
The media can also play a part in reinforcing a stigma by:
• portraying inaccurate stereotypes about people with a mental illness
• sensationalising situations through unwarranted references to mental illness
• using demeaning or hostile language
For example, if a part of the media associates mental illness with violence, that promotes the myth that all people with a mental illness are dangerous. In fact, research shows people with mental illness are more likely to be victims than perpetrators of violence.
A person who is stigmatised may be treated differently and excluded from many things the rest of society takes for granted.
People with mental illness may also take on board the prejudiced views held by others, which can affect their self-esteem. This can lead them to not seek treatment, to withdraw from society, to succumb to alcohol and drug abuse or even to suicide.