Challenging Treatment Hesitancy Caused by Mental Illness Stigma in Specialist Advice Responses on Polish Healthcare Platforms

Stigma has numerous adverse effects on people with mental illness. This includes delay in or avoidance of setting an appointment with a professional, as, for example, individuals are concerned for being ridiculed, unable to find a job, or deprived of the right to education because of their diagnosis. To resolve such concerns or learn how to self-manage the condition, they seek specialist advice online. In this study, accordingly, we investigated social actions performed by mental health advisors on two Polish healthcare platforms to counteract stigma-rooted treatment hesitancy. We collected 70 advice-seekers' enquiries and 361 responses to them that were of relevance to the topic of the study. Further, the data were analysed with the discursive psychology approach. This revealed five main types of social actions undertaken by the advisors, namely (1) pathologising and medicalising, (2) referring to masculine role models, (3) micro-educating about codes of conduct and legal regulations, (4) expressing moral indignation over stigmatisation, as well as (5) asserting limitations of online healthcare platforms. All of them potentially empower advice-seekers, decreasing treatment hesitancy. Nevertheless, some of them may bring unintended messages as well. To illustrate, pathologising and medicalising normalise mental illness, which may make some people conceal their condition to come across as unexceptional. An assessment of the efficacy of these social actions is recommended to expand practical implications for support.