CrossCurrents Summer 2004: News media perpetuate the myth about mental illness and violence

CrossCurrents

The Last Word

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The stigma associated with mental illness is recognized as one of the most insidious and difficult barriers to treatment. Sadly, the news media has been a big contributor to this stigma. Who doesn't recognize the media "code language" that frequently crops up in reports that a person involved in a violent incident "had a history of mental illness," which implies that somehow they were to blame?

This, despite study after study, showing that people with mental illness are no more likely to be violent than anybody else.

Selective and biased reporting reinforces the myth that people with mental illness are dangerous. I have often wondered why we do not see reports in the news media of violent incidents that mention that the people involved had a history of diabetes or high blood pressure, or that they had blonde hair. I guess that's because no one accepts that these factors have any link to violent behaviour.

With this in mind, I conducted an informal survey of how Canadian news outlets over the past half-year reported stories that mentioned "mental illness." The results were sad but predictable. For example, in March, a Montreal newspaper ran the headline, "Here's an idea that really is nuts" above a piece about a Nova Scotia project that offered prizes to people who report the use of words in the news media that stigmatize people with mental illness.

The Montreal paper wasn't the only news outlet to express outrage at the idea that someone should keep tabs on the use of such damaging words in the news media. Apparently, these news outlets think they need unfettered access to terms like "nut case" and "raving lunatic" to safeguard a free press. Over and over, outraged writers and editors claim that simply examining this issue is the first step on the slippery slope to censorship.

But strangely enough, virtually all news outlets these days have accepted specific policies about reporting race to stop the perpetration of racial stereotypes. I guess they think people with mental illness don't deserve the same respect and sensitivity.

Another glaring example of media bias is a headline run by a Toronto newspaper that read, "The moms must be crazy." It ran above a story about how some women struggle with obsessive thoughts after having a baby. No one can dispute that post-partum depression and psychosis are serious and neglected conditions. But this paper's frivolous approach to such a serious subject is unforgivable.

A Hamilton, Ontario, newspaper ran the headline, "Pity that crazy boss" above a story that began with: "So you think your supervisor is deranged? Could be …" This story was about a survey on mental health issues in the workplace released by the Global Business and Economic Roundtable on Addiction and Mental Health, which concluded that middle managers must be sensitive to mental health concerns. The study also cited a need to increase awareness of mental health issues to reduce workplace stress and combat mental illness. I'd like to think no one saw the discrimination perpetrated by that headline, but I'm not sure.

In its report to the Ontario government, the Toronto-Peel Mental Health Implementation Task Force noted that as long as people with mental illness continue to suffer discrimination, many will fear that seeking help could destroy their workplace or community status. As long as the news media continue to stigmatize people with mental illness, they reinforce this discrimination.

It seems that attacking people with mental illness and portraying them as dangerous and somehow less than human is one of the last socially acceptable forms of prejudice.

As a person who lives with bipolar mood disorder and who has worked for more than two decades in the news business, this reality makes me cringe.

I chose to go public with my struggle with bipolar disorder last May, after Ontario Lieutenant Governor James Bartleman told me the stigma that hurts us all will not end until people stop being afraid of being honest about their illness.

There are indications that things are changing for the better. The Ottawa Citizen was recently honoured with a Mental Illness Awareness Special Recognition Award from the Canadian Psychiatric Association for an excellent report on suicide. The nine-part series included interviews with scientists, social workers and suicide survivors and their families. It won praise from mental health advocates for its sensitivity, thoroughness, honesty and public education value.

And I must mention that the same Montreal paper that ran the headline about the "nuts" Nova Scotia plan published an enlightened piece debunking the myth that people with mental illness are violent. It quoted a Health Canada study finding that a person is more likely to be assaulted by someone with a substance use problem than by a person with a major mental illness.

In recent weeks, after MP Svend Robinson revealed that stress contributed to his shoplifting at an antique auction, a Toronto paper ran the headline, "Stress can make the honest into thieves: MDs," The piece went on to quote a doctor who said: "The problem faced by people like Mr. Robinson … is the stigma of getting treatment. Having mental illness should be no more blameworthy than diabetes or heart disease … Yet deep down, people look at mental illness in a negative light."

But on the flip side, one Vancouver editorial said the positive response to Robinson's personal struggles was just "a modern ritual in which we obviate crime and guilt by recreating them as aspects of mental illness." What's that saying? One step forward, two steps back.

Robin Harvey has been a journalist for the Toronto Star for 21 years. She is also the third generation in her family to have bipolar mood disorder.

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