From stigma in the middle of nowhere to stigma in my back yard: changing geographies of stigma following deinstitutionalization of care in Lithuania

In 2014 the Lithuanian Ministry of Social Security and Labour issued the Action Plan for the Transition from Institutional to Community-Based Care. This plan stipulated creating opportunities for persons with disabilities to receive community-based services. The reform faced significant protests in local communities, who were against their new neighbours with disabilities. In this paper I argue that insufficient address of stigma resulted in deinstitutionalisation of stigma – a process that is taking place parallel to the deinstitutionalisation of care. The case study utilized observing public meetings, analyzing media coverage on community protests, conducting interviews with individuals having intellectual and psychosocial disabilities, community members, social workers, activists, and experts in deinstitutionalization, along with creating ecological maps. Research has shed new light on combating stigma through protest, education, and contact (Corrigan & Penn, 1999). The Ministry and the media, identified as main actors in educational efforts, displayed deficient communication strategies; the Ministry's delayed, abstract, and non-localized approach contrasted with the media's role in highlighting potential conflicts, consequently impeding stigma reduction. Protests in the communities was used to express negative attitudes toward mental illness. The protests were not geared towards combating stigma but, instead, served to amplify it by targeting residents of the group homes. Encountering well-integrated individuals with psychosocial disabilities reduces stigma, but the research highlights a substantial lack of such encounters; public stigma limits community members' interactions with individuals with disabilities, while self-stigma prompts people with disabilities to avoid engagement, resulting in limited participation opportunities and infrequent interactions between both sides.