Stigmatizing Clients With Mental Health Conditions: An Assessment of Social Work Student Attitudes

Abstract

Research suggests that stigma plays a major role in discouraging clients from participating in mental health treatment. Because social workers provide a significant amount of such services, this study investigates social work student stigma as a function of their willingness to treat clients with alcohol dependence, nicotine dependence, depression, and Alzheimer's disease. Students held higher levels of stigma toward nicotine dependent clients and less toward those with depression. Personal histories of depression and student age—but not smoking or alcohol use—were predictive of higher stigma levels toward nicotine dependent clients. Implications for social work are discussed.

Keywords:

• stigma
• willingness to treat
• drug dependence
• depression
• Alzheimer's disease
• social work students

Acknowledgments

Partial funding was provided by National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA) grants K05DA015799 (Senior Scientist Award) and T32DA021129 (Institutional Training Award). Additional support was provided by internal university VPRGS, Department of Epidemiology, and School of Social Work research funds. The content in this article is the sole responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of NIDA or the university.