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The Hidden harm of the diagnosis of personality disorder report

The Hidden harm of the diagnosis of personality disorder report

The Hidden harm of the diagnosis of personality disorder report

Monday, March 30, 2026

Debates around mental health diagnosis are becoming increasingly prominent, raising questions about how labels shape understanding, treatment, and care. While diagnoses can offer clarity and access to support, they may also carry unintended consequences, influencing perceptions of individuals and affecting the kind of help people receive within services and wider society.

Platfform’s report The Hidden Harm of the Diagnosis of Personality Disorder argues that the label can obscure trauma, reinforce stigma, and restrict access to care. Drawing on lived experiences, it highlights how diagnosis often becomes a barrier to compassion, misrepresents distress, and contributes to systemic inequalities within mental health services.

In this report Platfform focus on the stories of the diagnosis of personality disorder.

Our findings

  1. Health is compromised
    Receiving the diagnosis of personality disorder had significant implication for the quality of care people received, and increased people’s chances of being excluded from lifesaving care and support. In the mental health system, it is women that are predominantly impacted by the diagnosis as they account for 75% of the people that get given it.
  2. Trauma experiences are ignored
    Despite the strong emphasis on trauma-informed care from Welsh Government, participants’ accounts revealed a widespread failure to acknowledge, assess, or understand individual trauma histories as part of routine clinical practice. When experiences were shared, they were often belittled or ignored.
  3. The diagnosis of personality disorder can challenge human rights
    Our findings give cause for concern that this diagnosis goes against international human rights law, the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) and the Welsh Government guidance on reducing restrictive practices. In doing so, the diagnosis discriminates against a person’s rights to free and informed consent, privacy, liberty and security, personal integrity, and access to justice.

Read the full report here. You can read further about stories from the mental health system from Platfform's Truth Project here too. 

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