Reducing Mental Health Stigma With Jobs and Self-Confidence in America

Four years ago, Sally was diagnosed with a mental illness. Today she runs a successful dog grooming business. Since 2001, the Johnson & Johnson—Dartmouth Community Mental Health Program has touched more than 30,000 lives in 13 states, using a “supported employment” model to help people like Sally find jobs consistent with their interests and experiences. Their success at work helps reduce stigma and change the mindset of employers, who might hesitate to hire people with mental illnesses.

Preventing Disease and Fighting Stigma

Johnson & Johnson contributions programs address the broad spectrum of issues influencing human health. Considering various social perspectives, we try to find solutions working with local, grassroots organizations. Our goal is to make life-changing, long-term differences in human health by educating communities on how to prevent and reduce risks of chronic diseases such as HIV/AIDS, obesity and diabetes, and helping people cope with the stigmas of disease and mental illness.

HELPING SCHIZOPHRENIC PATIENTS STAY WELL

Studies have found that the challenges in helping hospitalized schizophrenic patients recover are a result of limited insight into the illness, patients' resistance to medication, a high relapse rate and discontinuance of care after release from a care setting. A program in Belgium, Puente, hopes to prevent relapse while helping patients make the transition back into society.

Puente provides patients with the resources to live an independent life. It fosters a close, caring relationship between schizophrenic patients and caregivers that includes shared decision-making, motivation to continue treatment, emotional support and access to long-acting antipsychotic medications. In the words of a patient, Puente is “a companion in my journey through life.”

Johnson & Johnson works with the nonprofit organization Rémissie on this program to offer health services tailored to individual patient needs. Puente has helped more than 700 patients since 2006 and is active with 41 hospitals across Belgium, enrolling an average of one patient each day. Puente expects to better the lives of more than 2,000 patients by the end of 2012.

CARING FOR HIV/AIDS PATIENTS

“Johnson & Johnson is a great help as well as a direct inspiration to us in our care and service to the poor, particularly the HIV-positive homeless and destitute here in Jamaica,” says the Very Reverend Father Richard Ho Lung, Founder and Superior General, Missionaries of the Poor.

Johnson & Johnson provides a grant to support an HIV program managed by Missionaries of the Poor (MOP) in Kingston, Jamaica, where HIV/AIDS cases have been steadily increasing and almost 10 percent of reported cases are among adolescents and children.