Tips for communicating about mental illness

It is important that society receives complete and objective information about mental illness and people who suffer from it. This is a collective that continues to carry great prejudices , which makes it difficult to defend their rights .

The media, the socio-health sector, public administrations and entities that work in this field, must do a job of raising awareness in society , generating realistic narratives around mental illnesses. Below are some tips for accomplishing this task.

The information for this resource has been taken from the following sources : the guides ' Communicating mental health: a communication manual for organizations ' and ' Words do matter: mental health style guide for the media ' , of the Spanish Mental Health Confederation ; the pamphlet ' Words Matter: What do you say when you talk about mental health? ', from the organization Mental Health Europe (MHE) ; and the text ' The words matter!: How to communicate mental health issues, recommendations for social communicators ', from the Argentine Association of Psychiatrists (AAP) .  

They are people

A very basic but much needed change in communications about mental illness is to refer to people who suffer from it as that, people with a condition, and not conditions themselves. Someone living with a mental health problem is much more than their diagnosis, and the vocabulary used should reflect that.

Sometimes it's as easy as placing the word 'person' in front of the disease, if talking about it is necessary . In others, work must be done to collect in the communication other aspects of the person's identity , which are as important or more important than the condition they have.  

Talk about the experience

Beyond the symptoms and diagnosis of people with mental illnesses, communications need to focus on the experiences of individuals. Each person's conditions can change, even if they have the same pathology.

It is therefore necessary to discard, whenever possible, psychiatric terms and focus on what people are experiencing. This will allow the public to understand mental health and the conditions linked to its complications as a broad spectrum of realities.

Voices and approaches

Linked to the actions set out in the two previous sections, it is necessary that communications about mental illnesses highlight the capacities of people who suffer from them, emphasizing that they have family, social and work relationships, as well as life projects independent of their conditions. It will also be necessary to apply the gender perspective and attend to diversity of all kinds (sexuality, race...). Mental illness is only a fragment of people's identity.

In addition, it is important that communications include first-person narratives . To talk about mental illness, what should be most interesting is to hear from the people who live with it every day. The communications, rather than reporting on them, should be interested in being the speaker of their claims.  

Without stereotyping

Information about events involving people with mental health problems must be offered cautiously , without perpetuating negative stereotypes about this group. It is necessary to avoid sensationalist and morbid terms , showing sensitivity to the diversity of existing realities. For example, in the news and other information about violent events, the media and other entities will have to limit themselves to the observable facts without emphasizing mental illness.

In addition, psychiatric diagnoses are constantly being used incorrectly in society . Communication professionals can have an important influence in changing the trend towards a more informed and sensitive population with mental health.

A speaker

All this will have to be done avoiding paternalism , without dramatization. The purpose of the communications cannot be to arouse pity, since then they will only repeat stereotypes . A hopeful tone should be adopted , conveying the feeling that people who live with mental health problems also do so with a very wide ecosystem of interests, experiences, tastes and life goals.

If you want to place mental illness at the center of communications, it will have to be a claim . As already briefly noted above, the media and organizations should develop their role as speakers , pointing out the lack of resources and the right of people to receive adequate attention.

Show stability

Another way to fight paternalism is to offer information about people with mental illnesses who are stable and live their daily lives regularly . It will be a priority to give them visibility, to listen to their testimonies . They can be the agents of the elimination of prejudice , showing that their illness is just another difference that must take place in an inclusive society.

Also, showing individuals who are at this stage of their mental condition means not only providing very useful information about treatments, but also a message of hope for newly diagnosed people and their families.

The images

Photographs used in communications must reflect everything that has been exposed so far. The graphic material must highlight what the group or a person with a mental illness has achieved beyond their condition: employment, personal projects, independent and family life... The positive aspects must be reflected , and abandon images that convey obscurity and isolation .