Mental illness remains as one of the most stigmatizing conditions in
contemporary western societies. This study sheds light on how mental
health professionals and rehabilitants perceive stigmatization. The
qualitative study is based on stimulated focus group interviews
conducted in five Finnish mental health rehabilitation centers that
follow the Clubhouse model. The findings were analyzed through inductive
content analysis. Both the mental health rehabilitants and the
professionals perceived stigmatization as a phenomenon that concerns the
majority of rehabilitants. However, whereas the professionals viewed
stigma as something that is inflicted upon the mentally ill from the
outside, the rehabilitants perceived stigma as something that the
mentally ill themselves can influence by advancing their own confidence,
shame management, and recovery. Improvements in treatment, along with
media coverage, were seen as the factors that reduce stigmatization, but
the same conceptualization did not hold for serious mental illnesses.
As the average Clubhouse client was thought to be a person with serious
mental illness, the rehabilitation context designed to normalize
attitudes toward mental health problems was paradoxically perceived to
enforce the concept of inevitable stigma. Therefore, it is important for
professionals in rehabilitation communities to be reflexively aware of
these tensions when supporting the rehabilitants.