Relationship of the Media to Attitudes Toward People With Mental Illness

Abstract

Undergraduate students (n = 102) were given the Community Attitudes Toward the Mentally I11 (CAMI) questionnaire. Significant differences emerged on 3 of the 4 subscales, based on the participants' ranking of their primary source of information about mental illness. Individuals who reported receiving their information primarily from the electronic media reported less tolerance.

Star Shots: Stigma, Self-Disclosure and Celebrity in Bipolar Disorder

“…Another Australian study found that:  almost 25% of people thought that depression was a sign of personal weakness and would not employ a person with depression  30% would not vote for a politician with depression  42% thought people with depression were unpredictable  20% said that if they had depression they would not tell anyone  almost 66% thought people with schizophrenia were unpredictable and a 25% considered them dangerous (SANE Australia, 2009) Francis et al (2001) stated that surveys of the general population as well as consumers of mental health services indicate that a significant percentage believe that media representations (in both news and entertainment) of mental illness are mainly negative, biased and unbalanced. Further, this negativity contributes to less tolerant attitudes and for consumers had detrimental impact on their mental health (Ferriman, 2000;Granello et al, 1999;National Mental Health Association, 2000). Positive portrayals had little influence on attitudes (Domino, 1983;Thornton & Wahl, 1996;Wahl & Lefkowits, 1989).…”

Stigmatised attitudes towards the ‘stressed’ or ‘ill’ models of mental illness

“…6 The media generally depicts such people as violent, erratic and dangerous. 11 There have been several attempts to reduce the stigma of mental illness, including the Royal College of Psychiatrists' Changing Minds campaign, the Scottish See Me campaign and Time to Change campaign in England. Unfortunately, there have been reports that national anti-stigma campaigns are not particularly effective.…”

Effectiveness and confusion of the Time to Change anti-stigma campaign

“…Abu Abraham, 1 Joby M. Easow, 2 Palanisamy Ravichandren, 3 Salman Mushtaq, 4 Linda Butterworth, 4 Aims and method Several national anti-stigma campaigns have been devised in the UK, including the current Time to Change campaign in England. Our aim was to assess whether the campaign promotional materials were likely to have any effect on public attitudes towards mental illness.…”

“…4,5 Providing factual information in brief fact sheets [6][7][8] or through extensive interventions such as educational courses is reported to reduce stigma. [9][10][11] These methods have been the basis of several anti-stigma campaigns.…”