Sharing Experience with Mental Illness Helps Squash Stigma

Lived experience, even with depression or other mental health conditions, is a “super power” one clinician says connects people and helps dispel the stigma that keeps too many people quiet about their emotions.

Ahmed Hankir, MD, an academic and clinical psychiatrist in London, calls on colleagues at the Institute of Living, part of the Hartford HealthCare Behavioral Health Network, to step beyond fear and shame to openly share any mental health struggles and encourage others to do the same.

“Many mental illnesses are preventable. Now is not the time to be quiet. We must be disruptive,” says Dr. Hankir as part of his Grand Rounds presentation entitled “Experts by Professional Experience – An Innovative Intervention to Reduce Mental Health Stigma."

For more of his insight, go here.