The Underbelly Of Stigma
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| Systemic Stigma |
Today’s Learning Moment – 08 23 21 Issue The Underbelly - Systemic Stigma
In recent articles, we’ve been highlighting all the aspects of the stigma that happens to people and families with mental health and substance use disorders. That’s because it’s so destructive to people suffering from MHSU and their families. Most types of stigma are pretty easy to recognize, however, there is one side of stigma that is insidious. It sits behind all the other types, festering people’s thoughts, attitudes and behaviours.
Systemic stigma sets up how all other stigma drives individual attitudes and beliefs, but it is also the engine that continues the cycle within our society. It is so ingrained in our culture that we don’t realize it or readily see how it impacts individuals and our community as a whole.
Recently there was a meme on Facebook from a member of Moms Stop The Harm. It showed a greenfield cemetery, covered in the white crosses representing their lost loved ones. There is a caricature of Adrian Dix, the Health Minister of BC, in a “Where’s Waldo” costume poking his head out from behind a cross. The question is “Where’s Adrian Dix?” It’s a fair question, especially during one of the worst health crises in BC history. What we now call the poisoned drug supply. His fingerprints are all over the COVID crisis, yet our BC Health Minister is nowhere to be found when it comes to the poisoned drug supply pandemic. Why? What message does that send to our communities and individuals who derive their thinking from the behaviour and comments of our Provincial Policymakers?
Premier John Horgan had almost established himself as an ally with the move to change drug policy and decriminalize drugs… almost. He then committed one of the biggest gaffes ever, by uttering a sentence in a press conference that was literally a bomb that went off amongst all the citizens of British Columbia.
When asked a question from the press about why there wasn’t a similar response to the overdose crisis as to the coronavirus pandemic; He stated that addiction was a choice, but the other crisis (COVID) wasn’t. This was a clear example of the underbelly thinking process of the premier on addiction and substance use. He, like many in our society, essentially dismissed the overdose/poisoning crisis as less important than the COVID pandemic based on the misinformation that addiction is a choice. Thinking that comes from the mid 20th century, and certainly not based on science.
The then Minister of Mental Health and Addictions did not act to correct the statement showing that she wasn’t completely on board with recommendations from the Provincial Health Officer. Either her knowledge and attitude about substance use were flawed or she didn’t want to correct her boss and fellow Minister, Mr Dix. . After a while, people have no other choice than to believe that policies around the poisoned drug crisis are being driven by personal feelings rather than direction and policy presented by our Provincial Health Officier and science. THAT is the quintessential example of systemic stigma!
You might think we’re picking on the Government or a political party. Sadly other parties would probably even be worse if they were in power. Governments and the political parties that form them have an obligation, especially when they are in power. We, expect them to make sure they check their personal unconscious bias at the door and implement policy and legislation that is grounded and backed by scientific evidence. Especially when dealing with one of the worst social/health catastrophes to ever impact Canadians.
It isn’t just BC. To be fair, let's take a look at another province. In Alberta, the UCP government has conspicuously and blatantly eliminated many harm reduction services and would have eliminated IOAT (intravenous opiate therapy) which has a proven record to change lives. Yet they are destroying harm reduction seemly by been driven by information from very selective sources of information. In this case, from what they’ve been told by police and outdated private treatment centres about addiction. The new minister of mental health and addiction in Alberta is an ex-police officer.
We have the utmost respect for what our police services do in our communities, However, police are trained to view and treat addiction as a crime… period! Why? Because we’ve been conditioned, and dare we say, brainwashed into believing that the simple use of substances is a crime, you know like we were back when alcohol was forbidden during prohibition. Look how that turned out. What do the actions of the UCP government and the appointment of a former police officer to the Minister of Mental Health and Addictions tell us?
The Vancouver City council promised a voice from those with lived experience as it drafted its request to decriminalize all substances within the city. VANDU, the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users, so influential in so much change for more than two decades, was never consulted. But the request went forward anyway based on Vancouver Police consultations. Hopefully, you’re starting to see the pattern of government and social organizations that drive systemic stigma.
Possibly we can give a small benefit of the doubt that Horgan’s comment was actually just naïve and lacked knowledge or maybe he lost his mind for a brief moment. Maybe Dix’s absence and Minister Darcy’s inaction were not malicious in any way. Maybe the Vancouver City Council and Alberta’s government really do believe this health issue is best dealt with by law enforcement. It really doesn’t matter whether or not these decisions are malicious. In fact, these folks are likely acting with what they think is in everyone’s best interest.
What REALLY matters is that the beliefs that are held by people we view as authorities, that we must trust due to their positions, and are making decisions are currently doing so based on a century of misconceptions, unscientific ideas and political expediencies or past governments and policy. THIS is the foundation of what we call systemic stigma and the main source of so many other sources of stigma, including the personal biases held by so many uninformed citizens in our communities.
So you see, our policymakers, our decision-makers, our lawmakers are supporting policies based on outdated information that was never factual in the first place. Policies that are meant to vilify and criminalize certain people. Yet here we are, our progress stymied by this same outdated thinking. Our answer to the crisis being blocked by people who wittingly or unwittingly are stigmatizing people who suffer from substance disorders. Making those lives somehow less important than other lives being lost to another health pandemic. That’s exactly what stigma does. It discounts certain people. It defines them as disposable in our society.
Sigma works by dividing us, it misguides us, and now it killing us.
It makes you wonder if that’s why we’ve ended up with the prohibitive policies that were created in the first place. They certainly fall short of actually address substance use as any kind of health issue.
All our past articles can be found here: https://ptalbcat.blogspot.com/
The link to this specific article is https://ptalbcat.blogspot.com/2021/08/the-underbelly-of-stigma.html. SHARING is best done by copying and pasting this link everywhere you want:
Author: Ben Goerner— Ben is a retired counsellor. He advocates for people with substance illness or mental illness.
Collaboration: Ron Merk — Ron advocates for families and people with substance disorders and mental health.
Families Helping Families is an initiative of the Port Alberni Community Action Team. We send out “Learning Moment” articles regularly to help folks understand substance illness. Knowledge is vital in understanding the illness of our family members. You may copy, distribute or share our articles as long as you retain the attribution. You can be added to our distribution list by dropping us a note at - albernihelp@gmail.com
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