Stigma reduction as quality health care: A qualitative study of structural level mechanisms to address stigma

by Carla Treloar, Emily Lenton, Amy Kirwan, Caitlin Douglass, Gemma Nourse, Adrian Farrugia, Kate Seear, Caroline Watts, Mark Stoove, Elena Cama

The impacts of stigma on health are well-known. Most interventions to reduce stigma focus on education or skills building of health workers and less on organisational or structural approaches. Responding to ongoing efforts to increase the quality of health care, we explore data from semi-structured interviews with 20 key stakeholders to identify and examine stigma reduction opportunities that align with existing practices, policies and structures for strengthening quality in the Australian healthcare system. Analysis focused on the “outer setting” constructs of the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research to identify and categorise mechanisms that linked to or were determined by governing processes of the (“outer setting”). The necessity to be accredited against national standards was positioned as an over-arching driver of what health systems do and what gets the attention of leaders and executives, and can subsequently impact allocation of resources, including for stigma reduction. Participants’ accounts also raise the possibility of using other more general industrial relations laws to bring greater attention to stigma reduction. Innovative approaches to stigma reduction using macro, structural tools provide a promising opportunity to trial.