Discursive exploitation or actual impact: mental health anti-stigma campaigns in the post-communist area

ENThe post-Communist societies distinguish themselves by a high level of mental health stigma. Movements of mental health service users are weak and very often more oriented towards the provision of services and support for their members. They often lack capacity and resources to become actual shapers of the mental health policy, initiators and active participants of public discourse. The paper presents the underlying situation of mental health care in the region, identifies and discusses peculiarities of local mental health anti-stigma campaigns and presents findings of the qualitative experts’ research. The research covers eight post-Communist countries (Lithuania, Slovenia, Hungary, Croatia, Serbia, Romania, the Czech Republic, and Georgia). It reveals a twofold positive effect of mental health service users’ activism, which has an individual therapeutic effect as well as helps fight stigma at societal level. In some post-Communist countries, such activism has failed to reveal its full potential due to lack of financial resources, widespread stigma and lack of mental health service users’ leadership abilities. Keywords: mental health, anti-stigma campaign, service users, post-Communist. [From the publication]