Substance Abuse & Mental Health Services Administration

CMHS Consumer Affairs E-News
June 22, 2004, Vol. 04-69

Funding Announcement To Reduce Discrimination and Stigma

FYI, on June 18, NIMH released the following Program Announcement to encourage research on efforts to reduce discrimination and stigma . This is a collaboration between SAMHSA and NIMH and encourages partnerships with researchers and community-based groups.

To view the entire Program Announcement (PA), please see:

http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/PAR-04-112.html

PURPOSE OF THIS PA

The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) invites applications for research to reduce mental illness stigma and discrimination. This initiative was conceived in collaboration with the Center for Mental Health Services (CMHS), within the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), and is in response to The President's New Freedom Commission on Mental Health's call for a national campaign to reduce mental illness stigma. The CMHS, which has a long history of providing support for innovative anti-stigma programs and strategies, recently launched the Elimination of Barriers Initiative (EBI). The EBI is a major undertaking to identify effective approaches in addressing mental illness stigma and discrimination. In a parallel effort, the NIMH is taking several new steps to encourage research applications to substantially increase our knowledge about how to effectively reduce stigma and discrimination and their consequences. This program announcement represents one of these steps and its purpose is to provide funding for partnerships between (1) consumer and/or advocate organizations, communities, or state and local agencies with hands-on expertise in developing and implementing stigma reduction programs and strategies, and (2) social, behavioral, and/or communication scientists with expertise in stigma research design and methodology. These partnerships would undertake studies that will: assess the effectiveness of existing stigma and discrimination reduction programs and approaches, including media-oriented approaches such as public service announcements; examine how, why, and for whom existing programs or approaches work; develop innovative new programs and approaches; and provide a better understanding of the impact of varied media (e.g., television, newspapers, magazines, cinema, direct-to-consumer advertising, internet), both positive and negative, on attitudes and beliefs about mental illness, and in perpetuating and changing mental illness stigma and discrimination.

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The Center for Mental Health Services is a component of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, United States Department of Health and Human Services.