Prejudice and discrimination from mental health service providers.

This column describes the experience of prejudice and discrimination that some mental health service users encounter in their interactions with service providers and organizations.The intent of this column is to highlight potential action steps to address the negative beliefs and attitudes of service providers that contribute to prejudice and discrimination.This description draws from published material and the authors' experience.If the most effective approaches to reduce public prejudice and discrimination toward people diagnosed with a mental illness are education and contact, then those methods may be useful methods to help mental health service providers view and engage persons served from a strengths-based recovery and wellness orientation.