Mental health provider stigma, expectations for recovery, and perceived quality of care provided to persons with mental illness.

Mental health providers may stigmatize persons with mental illness through derogatory behaviors and negative beliefs. Provider stigma may negatively influence the perspectives of persons with mental illness on their own recovery process. It is unclear whether providers’ self-assessed stigma is associated with their perception of the quality of care they provide or how self-assessed stigma relates to providers’ own expectations for client recovery. The current study identifies the associations between provider stigma, perceived quality of care, and recovery expectations. A cross-sectional survey was used to collect data from a sample of primarily female (73.68%), White (73.68%), and master’s-level (56.58%) service providers and clinical supervisors at 2 community mental health agencies serving persons with serious mental illness (N = 76). Linear regression analysis was conducted to explore the relationship of discordant quality of care, concordant quality of care, and expectations for recovery to provider stigma and to test the interaction of recovery orientation with concordant and discordant care. Higher quality concordant care was moderately associated with lower stigma, whereas discordant care was strongly associated with greater stigma. The inverse relationship between recovery expectations and stigma was small and not statistically significant; however, the interaction of concordant care with recovery expectations accounted for additional variance in stigma scores. This study suggests that provider stigma and provider expectations for recovery are distinct constructs. Additionally, greater provider-reported mental health stigma may be associated with providers’ own negative perceptions of the quality of care they provide.