Bernice Pescosolido receives NARSAD award

Bernice Pescosolido (Awardee 1999) receives a NARSAD Award National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression) -  Mental Illness - General
Distinguished Investigator Grant studying an award provides support for experienced investigators conducting neurobiological and behavioral research. Dr. Pescosolido’s study will repeat and reinvent the largest U.S. survey examining persistent stigma toward mental illness. Past surveys of attitudes toward mental illness have found that many Americans do harbor prejudices about mental illness, ironically, even as more people accept neurobiological explanations for the most prevalent disorders. Dr. Pescosolido will examine whether that trend has changed in the past decade and will expand the research to other factors, including what it is like to experience mental illness-based discrimination and respondents’ amount of contact with mental health diagnoses. With this research, her team aims to help reduce the health burden of stigma, which has negative effects on important recovery factors ranging from self-esteem to willingness to seek help. (2015)