Stop Press: how mental health charities are fighting the war on stigma and misconceptions in the media
World Mental Health Day was on the 10th of October, so here is a topical tour of the way mental health charities are tackling stigma and battling some misleading media stories.
The Sun newspaper stormed straight into the spotlight just a few days before World Mental Health Day with the blaring headline ‘1200 killed by mental patients’. It referred to homicide victims who were murdered by so called ‘mental patients over the past ten years. These figures glared angrily out of newsagents’ windows across the UK, emanating shame and stigma for those affected by mental health issues.
It expressed exactly the attitudes that charities like Rethink Mental Illness and Mind are constantly battling to change; the notion that people with mental health problems are somehow dangerous and unlike the rest of us.
In actual fact, one in four people in the UK live with a mental health condition. Many bear their struggles silently. They are so intent on hiding it for fear of discrimination that you can’t always tell when somebody is struggling.
Mental health charities have been fighting the war on stigma in a variety of different ways and their response to the Sun debacle illustrated the harm that false perceptions of mental health in the media can inflict on their mission.
The sensationalist, irresponsible and inflammatory headline didn’t only enrage mental health campaigners and charities, but also MPs and members of the public.
The Labour Party health team took to Twitter to describe the headline as “disgracefully reinforcing” mental health stereotypes, while Alastair Campbell tweeted that ‘Constant media linkage of violence and mental illness leads to violence against the mentally ill rather than by them. #stigma #timetochange.”
Campbell’s observations were correct; people with mental health problems are three times more likely to be the victims of violent crimes rather than perpetrators and 95% of homicides are committed by people without mental illnesses.
Advocating on both the behalf of their service users and mental health patients everywhere, Mind, Re-think and Time to Change really stepped up to the mark and hit back at the fear-mongering.
They responded quickly to defend their beneficiaries and issued a statement to the Independent stating how it was “incredibly disappointing to see a leading newspaper splash with such a sensational and damaging headline.
This headline, which will be seen by millions of people today, creates a completely false picture which will only fuel the stigma and prevent more people from seeking help and support when they need it, including when they are in crisis.”
Their concern over sufferers not seeking help is justified. Mind has recently completed a longitudinal study in conjunction with the national charity Victim Support and three London universities.
The survey of 361 people with mental health issues revealed that many of them were afraid of reporting crimes committed towards them for fear of being disbelieved or not taken seriously by the police. Some even had concerns that if they reported crimes against them, they may end up being sectioned or detained under The Mental Health Act.
These results were released onto the BBC website only a matter of hours before the Sun came crashing in. It is difficult to comprehend the impact the headline may have these people who are already struggling to receive the justice they should be entitled to anyway, without the added burden of a national newspaper making them out to be murderous.
Research by mental health charities doesn’t only have a place in tackling stigma. Many studies have been used to inform clinical practice for treatments and therapies and help give us a comprehensive view of the incidence of mental health problems in Britain.
In addition, both small, local mental health charities and large national ones are offering services like helplines, online resources for the newly diagnosed and support groups, meaning they often find themselves providing a lifeline for people enduring long waiting lists to get specialist help.
Over the past few years, mental health charities have started harnessing the power of the personal story to break down stigma surrounding mental health. The Time To Change campaign collects stories and blogs from anyone to convey how we all have mental health to look after and anybody can be affected by a problem.
Posters used by the Samaritans, where actors portray the stories of callers to the helpline at their lowest point, have been placed in railway stations across the UK to remind people that the charity exists for people reaching crisis point. Events like the Mind Human Library and Time to Change Village invite past and present sufferers of mental health problems to speak to people on the streets about their experiences and break stigma surrounding mental health.
A report by the Institute of Psychiatry on the first phase (2007-2011) of the Time To Change programme showed that there has been an 11.5% reduction in average levels of discrimination towards people with mental health problems. It also reveals that those in contact with the Time To Change campaign were more likely to have a better attitude towards sufferers.
This demonstrates how it is possible to change attitudes towards mental health and whilst there is still a long way to go, the work of mental health charities has proved invaluable so far.
Note: The Sun apparently obtained its figures from the annual report on homicide and suicide in people with mental illness produced by the University of Manchester. One of the first things mentioned in the key findings section of the report is how the rate of homicides amongst mental health patients is at the lowest rate ever since the beginning of the record (1997). Thus, the Sun’s claims that the mental health system is failing patients and releasing them onto the streets were they commit violent crimes is unfounded.
In addition, the total figure of ‘1200 killed by mental patients’ that the Sun quotes actually refers to the homicide victims of two separate groups of perpetrators; one group of patients who had previously been in contact with mental health services and another which hadn’t been in contact but were considered to be in an abnormal mental state when they committed the homicide. Their absence of prior contact with mental health services means that it is inaccurate to refer to them as ‘patients’ and it is unlikely that mental health services could have done anything to prevent their crimes. When we only include patients who had prior contact with mental health services, the number of homicide victims falls to 738 over a 10 year period.
Do you agree? Or have we got this one wrong? Leave us a comment below.