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Mediawatch Programme
The Royal College of Psychiatrists (Irish Division), with
funding from Pfizer Ireland, is undertaking a Mediawatch
Campaign. Over the next 12 months, we will be analysing the media's
attitudes towards mental health issues, by observing the way various
media reports, depict and comment on mental illness.
If mental health issues are to be understood by the general public
with knowledge and compassion, then the media must use the right
words at the right time.
Nobody knows this better than people who have experienced mental
illness and their families.
When people in the news are diagnosed with cancer or heart disease,
nobody blames them. But when people are being treated for health
problems involving the mind and emotions, the media may use negative
and judgmental language.
To change attitudes we need to change the language.
Examples of Bad Media Practice.
People with mental disorders may be wrongly described as 'disturbed'.
Criminals may be labelled as 'nutters', 'maniacs' and 'psychos'.
Psychiatric units may be dubbed 'prisons' and 'asylums' and psychiatrists
referred to as "shrinks".
Psychiatric illness may be sensationalised to make a 'juicy' headline
or story.
Schizophrenia is often incorrectly used as a synonym for ambivalence.
One sports article was headlined, 'The schizophrenic blues leave
fans in two minds'. The copy stated: "Tom Carr's men stretch to
almost goofy extremes in their trademark schizophrenia". Such
examples speak for themselves.
Suicide is a sensitive issue with a complex background in every
tragic case, yet sometimes the media make simplistic causal connections
between suicide and broken relationships, unemployment and exam
stress.
A tabloid declared, "Exam kids Driven to Suicide", apparently
unaware of risks of justifying suicide.
Help Us
By facing such prejudices head on, we hope to help change attitudes
in the media and create a more positive view of mental health
issues in the public consciousness.
If you see or hear any examples of mental health issues being
portrayed in inappropriate ways in the news media, magazines,
film, TV, soaps and sitcoms, please send them to us at mediawatch@irishpsychiatry.com
Send us positive, insightful examples, too. Media-types tend to
be labelled as insensitive, but they're not all bad, either.
Help is at Hand
The Royal College
of Psychiatrists have published a number of "Help
is at Hand" leaflets which explain the symptoms and treatment
of a range of mental illnesses.
These include:
To receive a hard copy send an SAE to:
Ms Miriam Silke, 121 St Stephen's Green, Dublin 2, Rep. of Ireland.
THE CHANGING MINDS CAMPAIGN
The results of a national opinion survey on schizophrenia
and five other mental disorders were released on October 7.
On that day, The Irish Division of Royal College of Psychiatrists,
at simultaneous launches in Dublin and Belfast, launched
a four-year Campaign to reduce stigma and discrimination. Changing
Minds is a collaborative campaign which includes a variety
of professional, patient and voluntary groups. The Dublin launch
took place in the Albert Lecture Theatre, Royal College
of Surgeons, St Stephen’s Green, whilst the Belfast launch took
place in the Hilton Hotel, Belfast, simultaneously at 10 a.m.
The stigma of mental illness remains a powerful negative
attribute in all social relations. Stigma is many things – it
is a marker for adverse experiences. First among these is a sense
of shame. Mental illness, despite centuries of learning
is still perceived as an indulgence, a sign of weakness.
This shame is often worse than the symptoms, with people making
efforts to conceal the illness from others. Secrecy acts
as an obstacle to the presentation and treatment of mental illness
at all stages. The reality of discrimination supplies an
incentive to keep mental health problems a secret. International
studies have shown discrimination against psychiatric patients
in housing, employment, insurance, education, health and social
services. A civilisation should be judged by how it treats its
citizens with mental illness: discrimination is also about
the conditions in which psychiatric patients live, mental health
budgets and the priority which society allows these services to
achieve.
As with racial prejudice, stereotypes make
people easier to dismiss, and in so doing, the stigmatiser maintains
social distance. The media perpetuate stigma, giving the public
narrowly focussed stories based around stereotypes. In the Republic
of Ireland, 57% believe that people with schizophrenia
are violent; 45% said people with schizophrenia were "hard
to talk to". This parallels the experience of physical disability,
where sympathy is a pretext for social distance - the "does
he take sugar?" strategy.
Presentations
Survey Results
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