World Mental Health Day - Are We Progressing?
Today, 10th October 2013, is World Mental Health Day, an annual occasion on which mental health, for this brief period, is forced, or should be forced, to the top of the agenda. So, in recognition of this auspicious day, I thought I'd just print a few thoughts on whether we are progressing in our goals of bettering the representation and treatment of those with experience of mental illness. In terms of how mental illness is represented in the media, it would seem that any progress on that front has taken a blow with the recent Sun front-page headline, "1200 Killed by Mental Patients". Mental health campaigners have been enraged by such sensationalism. Once again, the link is made between mental ill health and violence, and, as I've often said in these pages, while one cannot deny that those with mental illness sometimes commit violent acts, it is an absurd misrepresentation to suggest that violence is some kind of symptom of mental ill health. Stories of recov...