Contesting “Authenticity” in Authentic Leadership through a Mad Studies Lens

2021 ◽  
pp. 153448432110205
Author(s):  
Greg Procknow ◽  
Tonette S. Rocco

A Mad Studies/social model of mental distress lens was used to critique authentic leadership. We deconstructed the dilemma of authenticity and leadership by exploring how authentic leadership (dis)allows the inclusion of people with mental illness. We found that their minds are treated as disruptive and rarely ever read as authentic. For followers to view “mentally ill” leaders as authentic requires candidness, disability disclosure, and emulating norms typical to their ingroup membership. We conclude this paper by challenging HRD to rethink its stance on disruptive leadership as symptomatic of mental illness. Employees with mental health marginality can develop an authentic identity in the workplace through authenticity building experiences such as connecting mad leaders to peer-support training, offering specialized leadership development, and co-producing a mental health awareness curriculum that challenges unhealthy workplace discourses that stigmatize mad leaders and workers.

Author(s):  
Nahal Salimi ◽  
◽  
Bryan Gere ◽  
Sharo Shafaie ◽  
◽  
...  

"Police officers are some of the first professionals that might have direct interaction with individuals with mental illnesses. Statistics show that from 2017 to 2020 about 3986 individuals in the United States were fatally shot by police officers (Statista, 2021). These reports indicate that at least 25% and as many as 50% of all fatal shootings involved individuals with untreated severe mental illness. The purpose of this pilot study was to test the effectiveness of a five-day psycho-educational mental health awareness training in enhancing law enforcement officers’ knowledge about mental illness, and their perceptions towards mentally ill individuals using a pretest-posttest design. The Community Attitudes Towards the Mentally Ill (CAMI) scale was used to measure participants’four mental health attitudinal domains - authoritarianism, benevolence, social restrictiveness, and community mental health ideology. The results indicate that at the completion of the training there was an increase in participants’ confidence about their knowledge of the mentally ill individuals and mental illness conditions. However, the results also indicate a slight decrease in participants' mental illness social restrictiveness sentiment after the completion of the training. Additionally, the results also show a correlation between demographic variables and some of the domains. Implications for practice are discussed."


2000 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 61-70 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shailesh Kumar

Objective: There is a considerable imbalance of power in psychiatry that sits in favor of professionals. The abuse and discrimination of the mentally ill are not just restricted to the mental health system but may also exist in the primary care sector. This article aims to evaluate the effects of power imbalance on discrimination and abuse of people with mental illness by professionals. Methods: A literature search was carried out on MEDLINE using the key words consumerism, client empowerment, abuse, and mental illness. Publications of two leading British consumer organizations: MIND and the Sainsbury Centre for Mental Health were hand searched. Relevant cross-references from the papers reviewed were consulted. Studies with information on the reasons for power imbalance and prevalence of discrimination and abuse of clients were critically reviewed. Explanations are offered as to why abuse and discrimination of clients by professionals may still occur despite the onset of the client empowerment movement. Results and Discussion: The available evidence suggests that reasons for abuse of mental health clients fall under two broad categories: 1) direction from the imbalance of power and 2) those pertinent to the nature of physical or sexual abuse. Different grades of client empowerment and ways of strengthening it are described. Conclusions: There appears to be a link between power imbalance and abuse of clients with mental illness by professionals in all health care sectors. Client empowerment may help rectify the power imbalance. Prospective studies are required to establish whether client empowerment can reduce discrimination and abuse of clients and whether abuse is a consequence of power imbalance. Recommendations for future studies are made.


2020 ◽  
pp. 215686932094959
Author(s):  
Peggy A. Thoits

The emerging field of Mad Studies has returned attention to deficiencies of the medical model, refocusing scholars on social causes of mental health problems and on consumers’/survivors’ experiences of labeling and stigma. These themes echo issues addressed in traditional and modified labeling theories. A fundamental labeling premise is that professional categorization as “mentally ill” is a major determinant of individuals’ poorer psychological well-being. However, this relationship has not been tested appropriately because past studies frequently measured formal labeling by a person’s involvement in treatment. Treatment involvement can indicate the receipt of potentially beneficial services or harmful categorization with a stigmatizing label. Independent measures of these constructs in the National Comorbidity Survey-Replication enable reexamining traditional and modified labeling hypotheses for individuals with (N = 1,255) and without (N = 4,172) a recurrent clinical disorder. Supporting labeling theory’s central proposition, formal labeling was linked to more negative affect and disability days in both groups. These relationships were not spurious products of preexisting serious symptoms, refuting a psychiatric explanation. Treatment involvement effects differed noticeably between the groups, underscoring the need to keep treatment and labeling measures distinct.


2021 ◽  
pp. 136346152110096
Author(s):  
Aliza J. Hunt ◽  
Robert Ern-Yuan Guth ◽  
Diana Setiyawati

Forcible restraint and confinement of persons suffering from mental illness occurs throughout the world, including in Indonesia. Since 2010, when Gerakan Bebas Pasung (GBP) or the Indonesian Freedom from Forcible Restraint ( Pasung) of Mentally Ill Persons movement was launched, national policy has been published to eradicate Pasung in Indonesia by improving the mental healthcare system. This article analyses this policy, specifically the National Mental Health Legislation (2014) and the Ministry of Health Regulation Tackling Forcible Restraint of People with Mental Illness (2017), and evaluates their current state of implementation through a local, in-depth case study. Using mental health institution mapping, two sets of semi-structured qualitative interviews with government officials and healthcare workers, and participant observation in a facility practicing Pasung, we identify the extent to which the 2017 regulation has been implemented in Winong village and discuss current efforts and persistent obstacles to eradicating Pasung. We suggest that despite reforms and the new treatment facility in our case study, the continuing use of Pasung is due to a combination of access to care issues and a widely held explanatory model of mental illness characterized by strong curative beliefs that, when disappointed, lead to a sense of threat and hopelessness.


2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 33
Author(s):  
Rajni Suri ◽  
Anshu Suri ◽  
Neelam Kumari ◽  
Amool R. Singh ◽  
Manisha Kiran

The role of women is very crucial in our society. She cares for her parents, partner, children and other relatives. She performs all types of duties in family and also in the society without any expectations. Because of playing many roles, women often face many challenges in their life including both physical and mental. Mental health problems affect women and men equally, but some problems are more common among women including both physical and mental health problems. Aim of the study - The present study is aimed to describe and compare the clinical and socio-demographic correlates of female mentally ill patients. Methods and Materials: The study includes 180 female mentally ill patients based on cross sectional design and the sample for the study was drawn purposively. A semi structured socio-demographic data sheet was prepared to collect relevant information as per the need of the study. Result: The present study reveals that the socio-demographic factors contribute a vital role in mental illness. Findings also showed that majority of patients had mental problems in the age range of 20-30 have high rate. Illiterate and primary level of education and daily wage working women as well as low and middle socio-economic status women are more prone to have mental illness. Other factors like marital status, type of family and religion etc also important factors for mental illness. Keywords: Socio demographic profile, female, psychiatric patient


Author(s):  
Luca Pingani ◽  
Sara Evans-Lacko ◽  
Sandra Coriani ◽  
Silvia Ferrari ◽  
Maria Filosa ◽  
...  

The primary aim is to describe the changes in the knowledge of mental health conditions, the attitudes toward the mentally ill, and the intended behaviour towards people with mental illness among the entire student population of the third year of a degree course in Psychology. A total of 570 students attended a seminar on stigma towards mental illness and were invited to complete an online survey which collected data on sociodemographic characteristics and three validated questionnaires evaluating different aspects of stigma at three different time points (pre-intervention, post-intervention, and at one year follow up). A total of 253 students (44.39%) completed the questionnaires at t0, t1, and t2. The mean age of the sample was 23.7 (SD = ±5.89), and 86.96% (n = 220) were females. Between t0 and t1, a statistically significant improvement was observed for all three outcomes, while the intended behaviour outcome was no longer significant between t1 and t2 (Z = −0.70; p = 0.48). Females and who participated live at the seminar maintained a significant knowledge of mental illness and a better attitude toward community mental health care. The effects of the seminar focused on reducing stigma tended to diminish over time at one year follow-up, particular in relation to intended behaviour.


1996 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 158-165 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. Timms

People with mental illness have always been marginalised and economically disadvantaged. Warner (1987) has shown that this is particularly true in times of high unemployment. Poor inner-city areas have excessive rates of severe mental illness, usually without the health, housing and social service provisions necessary to deal with them (Faris & Dunham, 1959). The majority of those who suffer major mental illness live in impoverished circumstances somewhere along the continuum of poverty. Homelessness, however defined, is the extreme and most marginalised end of this continuum, and it is here that we find disproportionate numbers of the mentally ill.


2009 ◽  
Vol 194 (3) ◽  
pp. 278-284 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nisha Mehta ◽  
Aliya Kassam ◽  
Morven Leese ◽  
Georgia Butler ◽  
Graham Thornicroft

BackgroundUnderstanding trends in public attitudes towards people with mental illness informs the assessment of ongoing severity of stigma and evaluation of anti-stigma campaigns.AimsTo analyse trends in public attitudes towards people with mental illness in England and Scotland using Department of Health Attitudes to Mental Illness Surveys, 1994–2003.MethodWe analysed trends in attitudes for 2000 respondents in each survey year (6000 respondents in 1996 and 1997) using quota sampling methods and the adapted Community Attitudes Toward the Mentally Ill scale.ResultsComparing 2000 and 2003, there was significant deterioration for 17/25 items in England and for 4/25 items in Scotland. Neither country showed significant improvements in items between 2000 and 2003.ConclusionsPublic attitudes towards people with mental illness in England and Scotland became less positive during 1994–2003, especially in 2000–2003, and to a greater extent in England. The results are consistent with early positive effects for the ‘see me’ anti-stigma campaign in Scotland.


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