Stigma can maintain discrimination and oppression and reduce compassion and understanding. In the area of mental illness and psychological help seeking, stigma acts as a considerable barrier to recovery and adds additional burdens to be managed. This reality has led many different research groups to explore the workings of stigma and ways to intervene to help people who suffer from the stigma associated with mental health problems. We wanted to create a state-of-the-science source for the best research being done in this area and so we organized the Handbook of Stigma and Mental Health. This chapter provides an overview to the Handbook and the excellent research that is reviewed in it. In their chapters, the authors of the Handbook answer four important questions: “What are the forms of mental health stigma?”; “What are impacts of mental health stigma?”; “How can we develop interventions to reduce mental health stigma across contexts?”; “How can we understand the specific ways that mental health stigma impacts different groups (e.g., racial minorities, veterans)?” We hope that asking these questions will stimulate and drive more innovative research in the future.

Stigma is a powerful force that is not easily dismantled. The goal of the Handbook of Stigma and Mental Health is to assist with policy changes, interventions, and movement toward social justice by presenting the breadth and depth of the work on mental health stigma. The authors of the Handbook have provided a deep and more complete picture of what stigma is, how it might develop, and how it might be changed. The authors also have provided a clear picture that stigma cannot be understood in isolation, but rather intersectional and contextual approaches are best. Through the work reviewed by the authors of the Handbook, it is clear that research is still needed to expand on what situations and under what conditions stigmas could be minimized, reduced, buffered, or eliminated. Also, work needs to be done to create culturally affirming approaches to stigma reduction. We believe the work presented in the Handbook provides optimism about the changes that have been made and the progress in our knowledge and interventions. It also provides insights into developing unique perspectives on the field, challenging some of our well-worn ideas, and pushing the limits of our knowledge.