Stigmatization and Dishonesty: How Doctors Communicate and Cope with Mental Issues among COVID-19 Patients in Indonesia
Keywords:
COVID-19, social stigma, physician-patient relation, mass media/social media/communications media impact
Abstract
Background: The coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak has caused public fear alongside social stigma and discrimination. As a result, people hide the illness to avoid discrimination. This study focuses on investigating doctor-patient communication, their challenges when diagnosing suspected COVID-19 patients, and how the physicians communicated with patients’ mental issues. Methods: A mixed-methods approach examined this phenomenon and an online survey was conducted among 221 Indonesian doctors. The following were quantitatively examined: theme of Covid stigma and patient openness, patient/physician interaction and communication, and information and stigmatization of Covid. Qualitatively, two Focus Group Discussions (FGD) were conducted with five physicians and four COVID-19 survivors or their family members. Thereafter, interviews were set up with the selected four persons. Results: 74.2% of respondents encountered patients with lack of honesty or openness, while 55% of physicians claimed that 1-2 patients out of every 10 patients covered up about their illness. 27% of physicians indicated that 3-5 of 10 patients did not tell the truth. Majority of respondents opined that the media/social media played a large role in the promotion of stigma for those who had COVID-19. Conclusion: Study results affirmed belief in a link between the stigma of COVID-19 and patients’ dishonesty. Results indicated that many individuals are reluctant to disclose their true positions for fear of stigmatization by the people around them. This is linked to the stigma of COVID-19 and patient reluctance to be honest about their health/illness per impact of COVID-19. This research concluded that doctors need to find creative ways to communicate with their patients so as to increase patient honesty about illness.
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References
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2. Ali, H. M., Batta, H., & Ogaraku, H. C. (2021). Communicating COVID-19 Pandemic on Facebook: Illustrations from Users’ Screenshots from Nigeria and Bangladesh. Asian Journal of Media and Communication (AJMC), 5(1).b
3. Amindoni, A. (2021). COVID-19 Indonesia tembus satu juta: Pasien ditolak rumah sakit, kasus harian mulai rutin di atas 10.000, dan kuburan penuh [Indonesia's Covid-19 surpasses one million: Patients are rejected by hospitals, daily cases start routinely above 10,000, and graves are full]. BBC News Indonesia. Retrieved from https://www.bbc.com/indonesia/indonesia-55817115
4. Assegaff, S. B. (2020). Jangan meninggal akibat corona [Don't die from corona]. Detik.com. Retrieved from https://news.detik.com/kolom/d-4982048/jangan-meninggal-akibat-corona
5. Bhattacharya, P., Banerjee, D., & Rao, T. S. (2020). The “Untold” side of COVID-19: Social stigma and its consequences in India. Indian Journal of Psychological Medicine, 42(4), 382-386. https://doi.org/10.1177/0253717620935578
6. Biss, M. (2020). COVID-19 and the therapeutic value of communication. Journal of Communication in Healthcare, 13(4), 260-261. https://doi.org/10.1080/17538068.2020.1835328
7. Breitbart, W. & Alici, Y. (2014). Psychosocial palliative care. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
8. Cassiani-Miranda, C. A., Campo-Arias, A., Tirado-Otálvaro, A. F., Botero-Tobón, L. A., Upegui-Arango, L. D., Rodríguez-Verdugo, M. S., Botero-Tobón, M. E., Arismendy-López, Y. A., Robles-Fonnegra, W. A., Niño, L., & Scoppetta, O. (2020). Stigmatisation associated with COVID-19 in the general Colombian population. International Journal of Social Psychiatry, 002076402097244. https://doi.org/10.1177/0020764020972445
9. Creswell, J. W. (2018). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative & mixed methods approaches (5th, International student ed.). Thousand Oaks, California: SAGE Publications, Inc.
10. Dalma, A., Karnaki, P., Zota, D., Veloudaki, A., Ellis-Montalban, P., Dotsikas, K., Christophi, C. A., Ioannidou, E., Patouris, E., Themistokleous, S., Batury, V., Linke, M., Berth, H., Sakowski, P., Darias-Curvo, S., & Linos, A. (2020). Physician-patient communication: A qualitative study of perceptions, barriers, and needs in four European member states. Journal of Communication in Healthcare, 13(4), 301-313. https://doi.org/10.1080/17538068.2020.1790080
11. Dye, T. D., Alcantara, L., Siddiqi, S., Barbosu, M., Sharma, S., Panko, T., & Pressman, E. (2020). Risk of COVID-19-related bullying, harassment and stigma among healthcare workers: An analytical cross-sectional global study. BMJ Open, 10-12, e046620. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-046620
12. Goffman, E. (2017). Selection from stigma. In L. J. Davis (Ed.), The disability studies reader (5th ed.). New York, NY: Routledge.
13. Grover, S., Dua, D., Sahoo, S., Mehra, A., Nehra, R., & Chakrabarti, S. (2020). Why all COVID-19 hospitals should have mental health professionals: The importance of mental health in a worldwide crisis! Asian Journal of Psychiatry, 51, 102147. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajp.2020.102147
14. Harrington, N. G. (Ed). (2015). Health communication: theory, method, and application. New York: Routledge.
15. Kusow, A. M. (2004). Contesting stigma: On Goffman's assumptions of normative order. Symbolic Interaction, 27(2), 179-197. https://doi.org/10.1525/si.2004.27.2.179
16. Marcoes, L. (2020). Covid-19 kills as stigma harms families and society. Opinion. TheJakartaPost.com. Retrieved from https://www.thejakartapost.com/academia/2020/06/19/covid-19-kills-as-stigma-harms-families-and-society.html
17. Oh Sang-Hwa, Lee Seo Yoon, & Han Changhyun (2020). The Effects of Social Media Use on Preventive Behaviors during Infectious Disease Outbreaks: The Mediating Role of Self-relevant Emotions and Public Risk Perception. Health Communication, DOI: 10.1080/10410236.2020.1724639.
18. Omicron: the global response is making it worse (2021). Nature, 600(7888), 190.
19. Pavlova, A. & Berkers, P. (2020). Mental health discourse and social media: Which mechanisms of cultural power drive discourse on Twitter. Social Science & Medicine, 263, 113250. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2020.113250
20. Ramaci, T., Barattucci, M., Ledda, C., & Rapisarda, V. (2020). Social Stigma during COVID-19 and its Impact on HCWs Outcomes. Sustainability, 12(9), 3834.
21. Rela, I.Z., Ramli. Z., Firihu, M.Z., Widayati, W., Awang, A.H., & Nasaruddin, N. (2022). COVID-19 risk management and stakeholder action strategies: Conceptual frameworks for community resilience in the context of Indonesia. International Journal Environmental Resilience Public Health, 19(15), 8908.
22. Rizal, J.G. & Nugroho, R.S. (2020). Sudah 507 nakes meninggal karena Covid-19, terbanyak di bulan Desember [Already 507 health workers have died due to Covid-19, the most in December]. Kompas.com. Retrieved from https://www.kompas.com/tren/read/2020/12/29/130000965/sudah-507-nakes-meninggal-karena-covid-19-terbanyak-di-bulan-desember?page=all.
23. Roberto, K. J., Johnson, A. F., & Rauhaus, B. M. (2020). Stigmatization and prejudice during the COVID-19 pandemic. Administrative Theory & Praxis, 42(3), 364-378. https://doi.org/10.1080/10841806.2020.1782128
24. Schulze, S. (2003). Views of the combination of quantitative and qualitative research approaches. Progressio, 25(2), 8-20.
25. Shorten, A. & Smith, J. (2017). Mixed methods research: Expanding the evidence base. Evidence Based Nursing, 20(3), 74-75. doi:10.1136/eb-2017-102699
26. Shelton, T. (2020). A post-truth pandemic? Big Data & Society, 7(2), 205395172096561. https://doi.org/10.1177/2053951720965612
27. Shneider, A., Kudriavtsev, A., & Vakhrusheva, A. (2020). Can melatonin reduce the severity of COVID-19 pandemic? International Reviews of Immunology 39(4), 153–162. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202004.0122.v1
28. Syakriah, H. (2020). For some Indonesians, COVID-19 stigma worse than disease. TheJakartaPost.com. Retrieved from https://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2020/08/30/for-some-indonesians-covid-19-stigma-worse-than-disease.html
29. Sulistiadi, W., Slamet, S. R., & Harmani, N. (2020). Handling of public stigma on COVID-19 in Indonesian society. Kesmas: National Public Health Journal, 15(2). https://doi.org/10.21109/kesmas.v15i2.3909
30. The Economist (2021). Many in China are strikingly accepting of harsh virus controls. (2021).. Retrieved from https://www.economist.com/china/2021/01/16/many-in-china-are-strikingly-accepting-of-harsh-virus-controls
31. Thompson, T. L., Dorsey, A., & Miller, K. I. (Editors). (2003). Handbook of health communication. Mahwah, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.
32. Tyler, I. & Slater, T. (2018). Rethinking the sociology of stigma. The Sociological Review, 66(4), 721-743. https://doi.org/10.1177/0038026118777425
33. Wahyuni, H.I. & Fitrah, A. A. (2022). Pandemic in the complexity of the Digital Era: How online media in Indonesia construct the reality of COVID-19. Pacific Journalism Review, 28 (1/2). 84 - 102.
34. Wang, S., Wen, X., Dong, Y., Liu, B., & Cui, M. (2020). Psychological Influence of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Pandemic on the General Public, Medical Workers, and Patients With Mental Disorders and its Countermeasures. Psychosomatics, 61(6), 616-624. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psym.2020.05.005
35. WHO, World Health Organization (2020) A guide to preventing and addressing social stigma associated with COVID-19. Retrieved from: https://www.who.int/publications/m/item/a-guide-to-preventing-and-addressing-social-stigma-associated-with-covid-19?gclid=Cj0KCQjwgtWDBhDZARIsADEKwgMsFnCoRNam_lmQznO2_MqvojaMz1fktc6kgThUbd7lr6fRW3vwWHYaAoy4EALw_wcB
Published
2022-09-30
How to Cite
Assegaff, S. B., Dhani, R., Hollingsworth, M. A., Rinaldi, E. A., & Atas Asri, S. D. (2022). Stigmatization and Dishonesty: How Doctors Communicate and Cope with Mental Issues among COVID-19 Patients in Indonesia. European Scientific Journal, ESJ, 18(30), 262. https://doi.org/10.19044/esj.2022.v18n30p262
Section
ESJ Natural/Life/Medical Sciences
Copyright (c) 2022 Mary Ann Hollingsworth, Syafiq Basri Assegaff, Rendro Dhani, Enrico Adhitya Rinaldi, Sri Dhuny Atas Asri
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
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