Addressing continued stigma in healthcare settings worldwide
Tackling Stigma in Healthcare
What
Tackling Stigma in Healthcare is a global initiative of the UNSW Centre for Social Research in Health (CSRH). It aims to help end stigma in healthcare so that everyone—no matter their background, lifestyle or circumstance—can access care without judgement, fear, or shame. The initiative does this by consolidating and sharing the work that is being done across all sectors, building a movement for greater change.
The initiative, established in 2024, centres the voices and priorities of people with lived and living expertise and includes a biennial conference, a monthly newsletter, a resource library and a short course connected to the UNSW Lifelong Learning initiative, Combating Stigma in Healthcare, with more planned for the future. Since the first Tackling Stigma Conference, it has grown internationally with a large network of community members and professionals sharing approaches, information, resources, ideas and support.
Who
- CSRH, UNSW Faculty of Arts, Design & Architecture:
- Scientia Prof. Carla Treloar, Founder of Tackling Stigma in Healthcare
- Prof. Loren Brener, Deputy Director
- Dr Timothy Broady, Senior Research Fellow
- Dr Elena Cama, Research Fellow
- Dr Theresa Caruana, Research Associate/Postdoctoral Fellow
- Brooke Nolan, Communications Expert
- Global network of individual healthcare professionals, peer workers, community workers and others working with stigmatised populations
How
The initiative’s home, the CSRH, has had a focus on stigma since its inception in 1990. After seeing improvements in testing, diagnosis and treatment of HIV and blood-borne viruses since then, but not in the stigma associated with these and many other conditions and identities, researchers and community members have been calling for ways to address this for a number of years. In 2022, the Centre, with Carla Treloar as Chief Investigator, was awarded a four-year grant from the Commonwealth Department of Health to address stigma in healthcare. Following this grant, Carla was also awarded an NHMRC Investigator Grant in 2025 to continue this work.
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