Contents
Welcome: Stigma-Free Organisations
Understanding Stigma: What It Is and Why It Matters
Evidence‑Based Ways to Reduce Stigma (Overview)
Social Contact: The “Why” and the “How”
Education: Building Understanding Without Oversimplifying
Training: Turning Values Into Behaviour and Practice
Structural Interventions: Changing the game, not just the players
Multicomponent Approaches: Combining Actions for Greater Impact
The Implementation Pathway: Co‑Producing and Delivering Change
-
Welcome: Stigma-Free Organisations
Understanding Stigma: What It Is and Why It Matters
Evidence‑Based Ways to Reduce Stigma (Overview)
Social Contact: The “Why” and the “How”
Education: Building Understanding Without Oversimplifying
Training: Turning Values Into Behaviour and Practice
Structural Interventions: Changing the game, not just the players
Multicomponent Approaches: Combining Actions for Greater Impact
The Implementation Pathway: Co‑Producing and Delivering Change
The Implementation Pathway: Co‑Producing and Delivering Change
Anti‑stigma initiatives are most successful when they follow a systematic process: understand the problem, co‑produce solutions, plan activities and evaluation, test, implement, learn, and embed change into routine practice. This page gives you a practical pathway you can adapt locally.
Form a co‑production group
Create a group that includes people with lived and living experience (PWLE), staff, leadership and other stakeholders. Co‑production means shared partnership from start to finish - not consultation. It works best when it is meaningful, equitable, inclusive, accessible, safe and reciprocal.
Clarify roles (chairing, coordination, decision‑making) and agree how you’ll work together.
Specify the problem
You can’t reduce stigma without understanding where it shows up. Start by listening:
Use existing data (feedback, complaints, drop‑out data, access barriers)
Run conversations, interviews, workshops or surveys
Map service journeys to identify “stigma pressure points”
Set a goal and outcomes
Choose a clear goal (e.g. reduce professional stigma, increase access, increase PWLE influence) and define measurable outcomes (what changes, for whom, by how much, and by when).
Understand context, resources and barriers
Consider organisational culture, capacity, competing priorities, and potential resistance. Identify what existing work you can build on (training, policy review, health equity programmes) and what new resources you may need (time, facilitation, compensation, partnerships).
Choose approaches and plan activities
Select an intervention approach that matches the problem and is feasible. Break work into clear actions and make assumptions explicit (“why do we think this will work?”). Plan to prevent unintended harms.
Prepare an evaluation plan
Choose indicators and methods that allow you to assess change before and after implementation. Evaluation can be light‑touch (surveys, interviews, feedback tools, service access data).
Test, implement, monitor, learn
Pilot your activity with a small group, refine, roll out, and monitor delivery versus plan. Hold a learning meeting to review what worked and what to improve.
Quick reflection
Which step in this pathway is most likely to be skipped in your setting and what would make it easier to do well?