The ETUDE’s fourth network-wide training on the Stigma in Functional Disorders took place from 11-15 September 2023 in Florence, Italy, and was organised by a committee of selected supervisors and Early-Stage Researchers (ESRs). The participants of the training event included the ESRs, guest lecturers, ESR’s supervisors, non-academic partners, patient representatives and external PhD students. This mixture of experience, background and expertise set the ground for a very informative and thought-provoking training week.
The training week included in-depth lectures on stigma, the relevant social processes and how this all affects not only the research and clinical work but also the attendees as individuals.
The three ESRs from the Stigma Work Package presented their research findings. It was a fascinating day as the presentations were very thorough and gave an excellent overview not only on their research but also covered the sociological context and the reasons why stigma is so prevalent in medicine. ESR 13, Brodie McGhieFraser gave a very detailed and insightful overview about Frameworks for understanding stigma. ESR 14, Hõbe Treufeldt presented on Stigma in interactions between patients and health professionals and gave an overview for some of the psychological and sociological reasons why stigma is still persistent. And ESR 15, Caoimhe McLoughlin gave an excellent talk on Stigma experienced by patients, giving very potent examples of stigma affecting patients.
The week also included several workshops, which were all attended by the ESRs, guests, external PhD students, patient representatives and supervisors.
The workshops were designed to help the participants better understand and explore both personal and professional experiences relating to stigma.
One of the guest lecturers, Monica Greco, led a workshop that dealt with stigma from a sociological perspective. Hans Knoop created a workshop for supporting researcher resilience in functional disorders. Deidre Ryan, who is the president of Pain Alliance Europe, gave a talk addressing stigma through patient / peer organisations. Patient advocate and representative, FND Portal gave an illuminating presentation on the patient perspective from an online world. Lene Toscano shared in her presentation how to use media to increase awareness and reduce stigma. Joanna Rymaszewska shared her experiences on how to organise anti-stigma social campaign and the successful example of COGNISANCE JPND project. And Claire Henderson talked about learning from addressing stigma in mental disorders.
ESRs and the external PhD students focused also on learning transferable skills regarding dissemination and using different methods to explore the topic of stigma and other emotionally difficult topics. The first transferable skills workshop topics were already familiar from the previous workshop that took place in Budapest: Open science; Dissemination and Open Online Course (MOOC); and planning the final symposia where all the ESRs’ projects’ results will be presented. This allowed the ESRs to develop the ideas for the MOOC and for the final symposia in depth.
The second transferable skills workshop was from De Bagagedrager and it focused on talking about stigma in an interactive, stimulating and playful way. During that workshop the ESRs along with everybody else engaged in interactive activities that allowed to explore some of the more difficult aspects of stigma in a safe and mindful way.
All in all, the fourth training week was all about exploring the complex issue of stigma – what it is and how it affects us all. The week offered different ideas and ways to understand this complicated subject, and it focused on the need to empower the people who are affected the most.
