Stigma and psychiatric day care

Comparatively little is known about the stigma which attaches to psychiatric day care, as opposed to in-patient care. This study uses grounded theory to analyse the views of 21 clients of a psychiatric day unit. The results suggest that clients have difficulty in interpreting their reasons for continuing to attend the unit, and that these difficulties are connected with a fear of being labelled 'mad'. The issue of stigma management was important to the clients, and some thought that the move to a locally-based service would exacerbate problems by reducing the number of available stigma management strategies.