Combating Stigma: Strategies for Inclusive Health Services

This comprehensive short course focuses on the critical issue of stigma in healthcare, offering you the tools and knowledge needed to identify, understand and address its impact. Through a mix of online modules and live lectures, you'll dive deep into the causes and consequences of stigma, exploring how it manifests in healthcare settings and influences patient care.

The course covers key questions such as why stigma exists, what drives stereotyping, how stigma affects healthcare service provision and, most importantly, how you can change a person's experience of care.

What will I learn?

Stigma can exist at all levels within a healthcare setting, from interactions between patient and clinician to policies and procedures in health practice. 

In this course, you’ll learn to identify stigmatising language, practices and policies, while gaining an understanding of their unintended negative consequences. By drawing on leading research and real-world patient experiences, you'll explore practical strategies and interventions proven to reduce stigma in healthcare environments. You’ll also reflect on your own workplace, considering how stigma may manifest in your practices and policies.

Through real-life examples, the course will:

• Illustrate what stigma looks like in healthcare settings.
• Consider who is more likely to experience stigma in various contexts.
• Share evidence-based initiatives that have successfully reduced stigma and highlight what works.

By the end of the course, you’ll be equipped with the tools to influence service design, delivery and practices - helping to reduce stigma and foster positive healthcare environments for vulnerable groups.

How will I learn?

The course will be delivered online with a combination of live sessions and self-paced modules spread across 7 weeks, inclusive of a 1-week study break.

After some theoretical grounding, participants will be encouraged to apply knowledge to their own context; reflect on what can be done and how it could work in their workplace.

The online platform will be accessible one week before the start date, providing pre-learning materials for participants to prepare ahead of the first live lecture.

Live Lecture Dates

• Module 01 | 13 May
• Module 02 | 20 May
• Module 03 | 27 May
• Module 04 | 03 June
• Module 05 | 10 June
• Module 06 | 24 June

All live lectures are scheduled from 6:00pm to 8:15pm Australian (Sydney) time, with a 15-minute break included.

Who should take this course?

• Health clinicians and practitioners including peer workers
• Researchers and academics 
• People with lived/living experiences of a variety of identities, practices and health conditions that may be stigmatised 
• Policymakers and advocates 
• Community organisations and representatives
• Others interested in overcoming stigma as a barrier to healthcare  

Who is leading this course?

Centre for Social Research in Health

The Centre for Social Research in Health was established in 1990. Our work makes a crucial contribution to the Australian response to blood-borne viruses and sexually transmissible infections by examining the social aspects of HIV, viral hepatitis, injecting drug use, sexual health. sexuality and education, substance use and mental health, and the health of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians. We work closely with national and international researchers, community organisations and community advocates, and with government and state bodies (including health departments). Our work is underpinned by a core principle of engaging people with lived and living experience of the wide range of attributes, identities, conditions, and practices that we study.

Course Conveners

Dr Loren Brener is an Associate Professor at the Centre for Social Research in Health. Her research focuses on stigma and discrimination experienced by people living with blood-borne viruses such as HIV and viral hepatitis and the impact of this on health outcomes and quality of care. Her research is grounded in social psychology and aims to advance theoretical understanding as well as practical outcomes for marginalised and vulnerable groups.

Dr Timothy Broady is a Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Social Research in Health. His current research interests include addressing stigma and discrimination amongst communities affected by blood-borne viruses, HIV prevention, and the lived experiences of marginalised groups within society.   

Dr Alison Marshall is a Postdoctoral Fellow co-appointed at the Viral Hepatitis Clinical Research Program (the Kirby Institute) and the Centre for Social Research in Health at UNSW Sydney. In 2018, Alison received her PhD in clinical epidemiology at the Kirby Institute. Her PhD research utilised a mixed-methods approach (quantitative-qualitative design) with a primary focus on liver disease assessment, hepatitis C treatment uptake, and health policy. Prior to her PhD, Alison’s work involved multidisciplinary collaborations with international (WHO, PAHO) and national public health agencies (PHAC, CDC) to facilitate the uptake of evidence-based research in the development of hepatitis C policy, programs, and practices in global health settings.