The Scottish Mental Illness Stigma Survey

See Me and the Mental Health Foundation, in partnership with Glasgow Caledonian University are running the first ever national survey to understand how people living with complex mental health problems in Scotland experience stigma and discrimination.

See Me is at the forefront of international efforts to end mental health stigma and discrimination. The programme aims to give individuals, communities, professionals and organisations the necessary language, skills and confidence to talk about mental health and take action to tackle stigma and discrimination.

We have designed a survey to ask people about their experiences of mental health stigma and discrimination. We want to know how, where and to what extent people face stigma and discrimination because of their mental ill health. There is a real urgency for us to understand better how mental health stigma and discrimination impacts on people’s lives and behaviours in areas such as relationships, education, employment, welfare and healthcare services.

We need your support with this, to help us reach the people who hold the answers to these questions through experience, and to help us work with partners and find solutions that lead to change. The change cultures and behaviours, we must hear from people in their own words.

The study team at the Mental Health Foundation and Glasgow Caledonian University requests that the Scottish Mental Illness Stigma Survey is not promoted directly to NHS services or patients through those services, or by supporting recruitment through an NHS role (e.g. sharing the survey using an NHS email address or via a role you undertake during NHS employment hours). Doing so would breach the ethical parameters within which the research is being carried out. The study team is not responsible for the survey being shared unknowingly in these ways.

We would like to reach people aged 18 and over, resident in Scotland, who have experienced stigma and discrimination over the last 12 months and who live with complex, severe and/or enduring mental health illnesses including:

• Schizophrenia or other primary psychotic disorder.
• Bipolar or related disorder.
• Obsessive-compulsive or related disorder.
• Disorder specifically associated with stress (e.g. post traumatic stress disorder)
• Dissociative disorder.
• Feeding or eating disorder.
• Personality disorder.
• Severe and/or treatment-resistant depressive disorder.
• Severe and/or treatment resistant anxiety or fear-related disorder.

We are inviting both people who may have received a formal diagnosis, as well as those who have not been diagnosed formally but believe they may be experiencing one or more of these mental illnesses to participate.  Follow this link: https://online1.snapsurveys.com/SMIStigmaSurvey