Let’s Talk Stigma Reduction! was a coming together of diverse individuals, organizations, and communities to discuss stigma from an intersectional perspective as it is experienced/enacted broadly in relation to health and the social determinants of health in June 2021. Our goal with Let’s Talk Stigma Reduction! was to move out of our silos by providing a space for different sectors and communities working towards stigma reduction to come together. We want to learn from one another and collaborate together towards taking action to tackle stigma.
What do we mean by stigma?
Stigma is a powerful social process that is characterized by labeling, stereotyping, and separation, leading to status loss and discrimination.
Stigma is brought to bear on individuals or groups both for health (e.g., disease-specific) and non-health (e.g., poverty, homelessness, Indigeneity, gender identity, migrant status) differences, whether real or perceived.
Stigma can be internalized, perceived, or experienced/enacted and can happen across many areas of a person’s life – for example, at the personal level; at the systemic level, including accessing services (e.g., accessing health care); and at the governmental/policy level (e.g., laws).
-From: The PAN Deliberative Dialogue (2019) and Nyblade, et. al. (2019)
Objectives for talking about stigma reduction
- Provide a space to talk about health-related stigma with an intersectional lens with people from different communities, experiences, and areas of work.
- Share and learn about how we can provide services that are stigma free and how we can build programs and services that fight stigma.
- Meet others, and build relationships between diverse communities and groups who work to fight stigma across BC.
Read the event report from Let’s Talk Stigma Reduction!
Learn more about the Let’s Talk Stigma Reduction! speakers and presenters through their bios.
View recordings of Let’s Talk Stigma Reduction!
This recording of the morning half of the event includes an opening from Elder Sempulyan Gonzales of Squamish, a Mentimeter survey with attendees and our Fireside Chat panel with moderator Anita David and panelists Sekani Dakelth, Jessy Dame and Charlene Burmeister.
This recording of the afternoon half of the event includes singing and drumming from Candice Norris, pre-recorded presentations from teams doing stigma reduction work across the province and a Mentimeter closing survey.
We gratefully acknowledge the support of our funders:
