# Challenging aged care stigma through communication: discursive responses to stigmatising discourses about aged care work and implications for workers’ mental health

## TL;DR

This study shows that aged care workers who challenge negative stereotypes through communication report better mental health and lower stigma.

## Contribution

The study introduces the idea that discursive challenges to stigma can reduce psychological distress in aged care workers.

## Key findings

- Workers who challenged stigma had lower internalised occupational stigma and psychological distress.
- Discursive challenges often involved assigning positive value to negative evaluations of aged care work.
- Spontaneous challenges to stigma may protect workers' mental health.

## Abstract

Occupational stigma can negatively impact aged care workers’ (ACWs) mental health. This mixed-methods study investigates whether ACWs who challenge stigmatising discourses, through communication, experience reduced psychological costs of aged care stigma. We screened 184 ACWs’ discursive responses and tested for differences in ACWs’ mental health between those who challenge stigma and those who do not. A discourse approach was further employed to examine recurring language patterns in ‘challenge’ discursive responses. ACWs (n = 95) who discursively challenged stigmatising discourses reported lower internalised occupational stigma and psychological distress than those who did not challenge stigma (n = 89). These workers chose to infuse positive value into negative evaluations about ACWs and aged care work. Overall, findings suggest that ACWs may spontaneously challenge occupational stigma, through their discursive responses, which may proactively protect their mental health. We offer practical implications for challenging stigma, including developing guidelines, training, and language-based interventions.

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10433-025-00844-2.