Topic Tuesday 13/10: The media and mental health

[Former-Member]

@CannonSalt if only journalists had all the answers, unfortunately what works for one person won't work for another so the general advice is to tell people to keep searching for treatment in a form that suits you. Unfortunately this is hard to work out!

[CherryBomb]

Ten more minutes until we finish. Now is the time for any concluding remarks while @Former-Member put together responses for @Mazarita. 

[Former-Member]

I agree @CherryBomb it is a tricky task but I think all the journalist CAN do is to be true to the person whose story it is they are telling.

[CherryBomb]

@Mazarita @Former-Member what were your thoughts on Changing Minds? 

I apprecited how it showed MI as a lifelong illness for most of the people who featured in it.

[CannonSalt]

Thanks, @Former-Member !

[Former-Member]

I think Changing Minds is upsetting for some of people because they don't see mental illness as being real. Especially if they have no experience of it. I think Changing Minds forces people to acknowledge that living with a mental illness is hard but that you can recover in some cases. It also puts a really human face on mental health services and hospitals which tend to cop a lot of flack when it comes to treatment.

[CherryBomb]

That's a wrap for this month's Topic Tuesday.

Thanks to @Former-Member for offering her insights on the role of the media and mental illness. It's great to hear from a journo, it helped to demystify what they do, and show that they are also everyday people trying to do a very challenging job. 

Thanks to everyone who contributed to tonight's discussion. It's great to hear people views on how they think MI should be represented - in manner that somehow expresses the reality of mental illness. A challenging task at that! But certainly not one we should shy away from. Open conversation like, where we can learn about people are views of MI, I think, are a step forward. 

[Mazarita]

Thanks @Former-Member and @CherryBomb and everyone for an interesting discussion.

[Former-Member]

Thanks for having me everyone! I really enjoyed this discussion.