When Mental Illness Makes News, Facts Often Missing in Action

[HuckleB]

When Mental Illness Makes News, Facts Often Missing in Action

http://pn.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/content/full/40/12/18

"Newspaper stories about mental illness still focus most commonly on danger and crime, according to a study of 3,353 articles in 70 major U.S. dailies.

Thirty-nine percent, or 1,291, of the stories fell under the danger heading, most of them in the front section of the papers surveyed, said researchers led by Patrick W. Corrigan, Psy.D., of Evanston Northwestern Healthcare, in the May Psychiatric Services. At the same time, 26 percent of the stories dealt with treatment and recovery, and 20 percent covered advocacy actions and concerns.

The 39 percent of the stories related to dangerousness was smaller than the 50 percent to 75 percent reported in earlier research, wrote Corrigan and colleagues. "From this survey, we discovered that stories about danger and crime are waning, although they are still the largest single focus among stories about mental illness," they stated.

Nevertheless, Corrigan sees the glass of stigma as half full, if 3 out of 5 stories do not use disrespectful language about mentally ill individuals.

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This is important stuff, IMHO. Please pass this around.