Reporting mental health and suicide

One in six people in Britain are mentally ill, yet press coverage of mental health can often be insensitive and ignorant.

A famous example of this is the Sun’s infamous “Bonkers Bruno” headline, which forced the paper to issue an apology after complaints by readers.

Over half the number of journalists are concerned about the way their media report mental health.

It is therefore important that journalism students understand how to report mental illness.

Our journalism class was lucky enough to attend a seminar this morning given by speakers from Shift; the Department of Health funded campaign to tackle stigma and discrimination associated with mental illness.

There is a negative perception about mental health, fuelled by the media and aspects of popular culture.

34% of people think a person with mental health problems will be violent, yet less than 1% of murders are committed by someone with a mental health problem.

Suicide is also a huge social problem, with six thousand people taking their own lives every day in the United Kingdom alone.

We carried out a role-play (I strongly dislike role-plays, but this one had value), where one of us played the part of a journalist and the other the part of a woman called Susan with clinical and post-natal depression.

Our job was to come up with sensitive questions and a good headline. Since “Susan” had worked three jobs and had been discriminated against in two of them, I thought it was important to have job discrimination as the story’s hook.

Journalists and those who discriminate against the mentally ill should remember that anyone can be a sufferer at any time. In the past three years, a close family member has been diagnosed with severe depression after two suicide attempts and a friend of mine who had bipolar disorder killed himself after jumping from the roof of a church in Oxford.


Better reporting:
1.Avoid using words like "schizo" or "nutter".

2. Do not refer to people by their diagnosis.

3. People are patients in secure psychiatric hospitals, not inmates. They are discharged, not released.

4. Do not use the phrase "committed suicide". Suicide is, thankfully, no longer a criminal offence.

5. Make sure methods of suicide are not described in great detail.

6. Always offer a helpline number. The Samaritans can be contacted on 08457 90 90 90. Their postal and e-mail contacts are here.

7. Make sure you speak to an expert to check facts. Mind and Rethink both have press offices.

8. Don't try to suggest a simple cause for suicide: it is complex.

9. Keep up to date with PCC and Ofcom guidelines.

10. Make sure you encourage greater openess about mental health issues, and support anyone who is mentally ill or suicidal. For example, they should be interviewed in a neutral place, not their own home.