Most of the Covid-19 Survivors and Their Families Experience Stigma

JAKARTA, 27 August 2020 – The Covid-19 pandemic continues to grow and claims many lives, as well as causing economic problems. In Indonesia, this outbreak has also become a source of social problems, one of which is the problem of stigmatization.

Stigmatization or negative associations towards someone experiencing symptoms or confirmed Covid-19, survivors, or their families is not only a problem for victims. In fact, those who experience symptoms, suffer from, or are survivors of Covid-19 should receive support.

However, this has become a social problem that complicates efforts to contain the outbreak. Responding to this situation, Laporcovid-19 collaborated with the Social Intervention Specialization Group, Faculty of Psychology, University of Indonesia, to conduct a survey to understand more about the social stigma related to Covid-19. Apart from that, we hope that this survey can provide educational material to fight stigmatization.

Method

Survey respondents were those who had experienced symptoms, were sick, or were Covid-19 survivors, both from health workers and the wider community. The survey was conducted online using the convenience sampling method. The survey was conducted from 7-16 August 2020 and distributed via the WhatsApp application to several Covid-19 survivor communities and other networks and collected 279 respondents. After the validity test was carried out, there were a total of 181 valid respondents.

Survey Results

Demographics

The gender proportion is dominated by women with more than half the number of respondents (55.8%). More than half of the respondents work as health workers (doctors, nurses, etc.), namely 56.4%, followed by other jobs not listed on the survey form at 32%. The educational level of the respondents was generally advanced level, namely 59.1% bachelor's degree, 16.6% master's degree and 13.3% diploma degree. Meanwhile, the age of respondents was dominated by the 26-35 year age group at 41.4%. Most of the respondents to this survey were people infected/confirmed with Covid-19, amounting to 63.5% (115 people).

Findings

From this survey, it was found that more than half of the respondents (55%) admitted that they were talked about by people around them because of their status regarding Covid-19. A third (33%) were shunned or ostracized, and a quarter (25%) were labeled as spreaders or carriers of the virus. Nearly 10% have experienced bullying on social media. Stigmatization was also experienced by the respondent's family. As many as 42% were talked about or gossiped about and almost a third (27%) of family members experienced a situation of being shunned or ostracized. As many as 15% have received the nickname of spreading or carrying the virus. Some family members (7%) have experienced refusal to obtain and use public facility services.

In this survey it was also found that the majority of those most stigmatized were women. The cause of this treatment, as much as 43%, is because people lack information or receive wrong information. Others (42%) think it is because people are afraid. This stigma starts when people are suspected of being infected, and gets bigger when their status becomes positive for Covid-19.

Stigma is also experienced by the families of Covid-19 survivors, starting from being talked about, being ostracized, being bullied on social media, being left without help, being expelled, and being prohibited from using public transportation.

This stigma has a negative impact on survivors. As many as 51 percent of respondents felt worried, some felt sad, worried, afraid, disappointed, and even numb. Those who have been or are currently exposed to or are survivors of Covid-19 can feel supported by being asked how they are (70%), returning to their normal activities (70%), receiving attention by being given gifts or items (30%), given the opportunity to express their feelings (33%) or testimonials (29%).

This survey shows that the government and society need to seriously address the issue of stigma related to Covid-19. The government needs to carry out communications to the public that contain facts, accurate and unambiguous information regarding Covid-19 and its transmission to stop stigma. It is necessary to correct and straighten out rumors, gossip or hoaxes related to Covid-19 in society as soon as possible, correct those whose language promotes bias.

Apart from that, a platform needs to be created to voice the voices and experiences of survivors and those who are stigmatized as well as a platform for both the general public and survivors to provide support and strengthen each other.

Contact info:

• Dicky Pelupessy, PhD, Principal researcher 0818-824-402
• Maria Bramanwidyantri, MA, Campaign team to Stop Covid-19 Stigma 0819-0807-9882

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