ILEP and NNN publish guides on stigma and wellbeing
The International Federation of Anti-Leprosy Associations (ILEP) and Neglected Tropical Disease NGO Network (NNN) have published new guides on stigma and well-being.
The guides focus on stigma and mental wellbeing in the context of NTDs but are relevant for people working to address all forms of health-related stigma and promote mental wellbeing in interventions, policies, training, care packages, evaluations or other services.
The guides were comprehensively rewritten during 2019 to incorporate improved insights, align with current evidence, and make mental wellbeing an integral component of the series. They provide best-practice information and recommendations from various disciplines on how stigma manifests, how it can be reduced and the tools available to assess the experience of stigma and its effects on mental wellbeing.
The complete series includes:
- What are health-related stigma and mental wellbeing? This section provides basic information about stigma and its causes and manifestations.
- How to reduce the impact of stigma. This section presents coping mechanisms for individuals and families at risk of stigma and provides practical tools for those who are working with them.
- How to reduce sources of stigma. This section focuses on interventions that can tackle the different sources of stigma in contexts such as the community, the health sector, service providers, institutions, law and policies and the media.
- How to assess health-related stigma and mental wellbeing. This section explains why it is important to assess stigma and mental wellbeing and describes qualitative and quantitative assessment methods and instruments. It also explains how to interpret and report the assessed findings.