With us all relying on news outlets in one way or another to keep up to date with what’s happening in the world, our perceptions of life are heavily influenced by what we watch or read. If I was to ask you about a situation going on abroad and what you think of it, your knowledge, understanding and opinions will be based on what you see on the news. The issue is, when it comes to mental health, the ways in which it is covered in the media heavily varies. 

If a crime is committed by somebody with a diagnosed mental health condition, it is all too common to put the mental health condition in the headlines.

Schizophrenic (location) man who killed…

Schizophrenic man who killed…

Woman with schizophrenia kills…

A paranoid schizophrenic who admitted…

‘Psycho’ pensioner stabbed…

Whilst it may be the case that the individuals mental health influenced their decisions, by the media fixating on their diagnosis, especially within the headlines, it unfairly stigmatises all with that mental health condition. Despite with diagnosed conditions being at a greater risk to themselves rather than others, it is a common misconception that those with mental health conditions are a risk to society. 

Another stigma within the media, which has slowly died down in the UK but still exists in countries like the United States, is the use of the term ‘committed suicide’. Suicide was in fact a crime in the UK up until 1961, where people were prosecuted for attempting suicide. The BBC (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-14374296) reports a 59 year old being sent to prison for 6 months in 1948 for attempted “self murder”, amongst others. Whilst there are still issues surrounding prosecutions for mental health related issues, which will be spoken about in a later blog, the act of attempting suicide would not see you being prosecuted now. Despite this, the term “committed suicide” still gets used, both in society and in the media. Terms like this further add to the stigma surrounding mental illness and suicide; that it’s ‘selfish’, further pushes negative stereotypes and places the blame on the person rather than recognising they need or needed help. Phrases that are better used is ‘took their own life’ or ‘died by suicide’. 

Mental Health campaigner Natasha Devon MBE launched the ‘Mental Health Media Charter’ in 2017 to set up guidelines for the media to ensure their reporting is ‘responsible, genuinely educational and stigma-reducing’ (https://www.natashadevon.com/the-mental-health-media-charter). The issue is, not everybody followed what was written in these guidelines. With the example of ‘committed suicide’ some journalists stated not wanting to say ‘died by suicide’ because it adds 1 word to their word count. By adding just that 1 word, it can help in the long run to reduce the stigma surrounding suicide but some felt that their word count was more important. 

Within the Mental Health Media Charter their are 5 points of things not to do. 

1- Use the phrase ‘commit suicide’ or ‘successful suicide’, for the reasons explained above.

2- Show ‘before’ images in eating disorder stories or pictures which could be triggering to people who self-harm because for those with eating disorders, it can cause distress or result in them ‘aspiring to’ be like the person in the photo. With self harm and eating disorders, their weight or ‘severity’ of the self harm doesn’t determine their psychological distress but photos can lead to people thinking they can assess it from the photos, 

3- Use the term ‘anorexics’, ‘bulimics’, ‘depressives’ or ‘schizophrenics’ because using ___ language implies that their illness is part of their identity but rather they are ‘experiencing anorexia’ which is what we should say. 

4- Give too much detail on suicide/self-harm or eating disorder methodology as this can lead to others using the same methods.

5- Use generic terms like ‘mental health issues’ when describing terrorists and other violent criminals as this further pushes the stigma that those with mental health issues are a danger to others.

It then continues with 2 things that are best to do

1- Understand the difference between mental health and mental ill health as it is often ignored that we all in fact have mental health but we don’t all have a mental health condition. 

2- Include links to good quality sources of support if content might trigger need for help in a reader/viewer as this can help readers/watchers to know what support is available.

Through the work of Natasha Devon and others within the mental health field, there has been improvements in the media over the years but ore can be done to ensure the 7 pointers mentioned in the charter are followed by everybody. 

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