Dramatic portrayal of suicide: a critical analysis of Netflix's 13 Reasons Why

AimsThe aims of this project were to assess how well the Netflix drama 13 Reasons Why portrayed suicide, in terms of both accuracy and safety, and to discuss the potential effect this could have on viewers.BackgroundPsychiatric content within dramatic media can have measurable effects on the population, such as reinforcing stigma around mental illness. Given the show's focus on a character's suicide, the most serious effect here would be suicide contagion.Guidelines and regulations for the portrayal of suicide in media are in place to protect those who might be vulnerable to suicide contagion.MethodWe formed our own pro-forma of 42 criteria using existing guidelines written for both news and dramatic media. These criteria were formatted into positive and negative pairs; positive being instances of guidelines being followed, negative as guidelines being broken. These were further organised into 7 categories.Each episode of seasons 1-2 was then assessed against the criteria. Cumulative instances of guidelines being followed or broken were compared within and between seasons. Context of each instance was taken into account by the primary researcher, and we also highlighted instances of exceptional breach of these guidelines.ResultThe results showed an over-all breach of the guidelines, with no significant improvement between the seasons. Some categories of criteria, such as “asking for help” and “mental health”, were portrayed well overall. Other categories, such as “blame”, performed extremely badly.The most significant breach was the graphic suicide scene at the end of the first season, which completely disregarded Samaritans’ guidelines.ConclusionThe breaching of guidelines in this show was overwhelming. In terms of severity, although there were some positive themes running through the seasons, there were also worrying instances of guidelines being completely disregarded. This led to the conclusion that the producers of the show did not take their responsibility to young, vulnerable viewers seriously regarding the dangers around portraying suicide.Suggestions from this study are that more guidelines around suicide are needed specifically for dramatic media, and that existing guidelines should be conflated and have stronger implementation by regulators. This implementation should potentially include overseas providers such as Netflix. Ethically, a significant challenge here is maintaining balance between safety and allowing artistic licence.

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Integrated mental health atlas of the Western Sydney Local Health District: gaps and recommendations

Australian Health Review ◽

10.1071/ah15154 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 41 (1) ◽

pp. 38 ◽

Cited By ~ 16

Author(s):

Ana Fernandez ◽

James A. Gillespie ◽

Jennifer Smith-Merry ◽

Xiaoqi Feng ◽

Thomas Astell-Burt ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Mental Health ◽

Health Care ◽

Mental Illness ◽

Mental Health Care ◽

Lived Experience ◽

Critical Analysis ◽

Local Health ◽

Adult Mental Health ◽

Local Evidence ◽

Integrated Mental Health

Objective Australian mental health care remains hospital centric and fragmented; it is riddled with gaps and does little to promote recovery. Reform must be built on better knowledge of the shape of existing services. Mental health atlases are an essential part of this knowledge base, enabling comparison with other regions and jurisdictions, but must be based on a rigorous classification of services. The main aim of this study is to create an integrated mental health atlas of the Western Sydney LHD in order to help decision makers to better plan informed by local evidence. Methods The standard classification system, namely the Description and Evaluation of Services and Directories in Europe for Long-term Care model, was used to describe and classify adult mental health services in the Western Sydney Local Health District (LHD). This information provided the foundation for accessibility maps and the analysis of the provision of care for people with a lived experience of mental illness in Western Sydney LHD. All this data was used to create the Integrated Mental Health Atlas of Western Sydney LHD. Results The atlas identified four major gaps in mental health care in Western Sydney LHD: (1) a lack of acute and sub-acute community residential care; (2) an absence of services providing acute day care and non-acute day care; (3) low availability of specific employment services for people with a lived experience of mental ill-health; and (4) a lack of comprehensive data on the availability of supported housing. Conclusions The integrated mental health atlas of the Western Sydney LHD provides a tool for evidence-informed planning and critical analysis of the pattern of adult mental health care. What is known about the topic? Several reports have highlighted that the Australian mental health system is hospital based and fragmented. However, this knowledge has had little effect on actually changing the system. What does this paper add? This paper provides a critical analysis of the pattern of adult mental health care provided within the boundaries of the Western Sydney LHD using a standard, internationally validated tool to describe and classify the services. This provides a good picture of the availability of adult mental health care at the local level that was hitherto lacking. What are the implications for practitioners? The data presented herein provide a better understanding of the context in which mental health practitioners work. Managers and planners of services providing care for people with a lived experience of mental illness can use the information herein for better planning informed by local evidence.

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Does having been on a ‘section’ reduce your chances of getting a job?

Psychiatric Bulletin ◽

10.1192/pb.27.5.177 ◽

2003 ◽

Vol 27 (05) ◽

pp. 177-178 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

John Fenton ◽

Dee O'Hanlon ◽

Danny Allen

Keyword(s):

Mental Health ◽

Mental Illness ◽

Potential Effect ◽

Job Applicants ◽

Small Companies ◽

Medical Opinion ◽

Mental Health Act ◽

History Of ◽

Fitness To Work ◽

Job Prospects

Aims and Method To ascertain employers' attitudes to interviewing and hiring job applicants with a history of mental illness and, in particular, to assess the potential effect on job prospects for applicants with a history of admission under the Mental Health Act 1983. A postal tick-box questionnaire was sent to 174 companies; there was a 32% response rate. Results The main factors influencing employers' hiring decisions were medical opinion regarding an applicant's fitness to work and their employment and sickness records. In about three-quarters of small companies and half of large companies, questions about mental illness are simply never asked. Clinical Implications Approved social workers have no reason to caution people assessed under the Mental Health Act 1983 that being detained could harm their job prospects.

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Does having been on a ‘section’ reduce your chances of getting a job?

Psychiatric Bulletin ◽

10.1192/s0955603600002075 ◽

2003 ◽

Vol 27 (5) ◽

pp. 177-178

Author(s):

John Fenton ◽

Dee O'Hanlon ◽

Danny Allen

Keyword(s):

Mental Health ◽

Mental Illness ◽

Potential Effect ◽

Job Applicants ◽

Small Companies ◽

Medical Opinion ◽

Mental Health Act ◽

History Of ◽

Fitness To Work ◽

Job Prospects

Aims and MethodTo ascertain employers' attitudes to interviewing and hiring job applicants with a history of mental illness and, in particular, to assess the potential effect on job prospects for applicants with a history of admission under the Mental Health Act 1983. A postal tick-box questionnaire was sent to 174 companies; there was a 32% response rate.ResultsThe main factors influencing employers' hiring decisions were medical opinion regarding an applicant's fitness to work and their employment and sickness records. In about three-quarters of small companies and half of large companies, questions about mental illness are simply never asked.Clinical ImplicationsApproved social workers have no reason to caution people assessed under the Mental Health Act 1983 that being detained could harm their job prospects.

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What lies at the intersection of law and psychiatric nursing? Exploring the process of judiciarization in the context of mental health

Witness: The Canadian Journal of Critical Nursing Discourse ◽

10.25071/2291-5796.72 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 2 (2) ◽

pp. 3-19

Author(s):

Etienne Paradis-Gagné ◽

Jean-Daniel Jacob ◽

Pierre Pariseau-Legault

Keyword(s):

Mental Health ◽

Mental Illness ◽

Social Control ◽

Michel Foucault ◽

Critical Analysis ◽

Nursing Practice ◽

Psychiatric Nursing ◽

Discursive Analysis

In this article, our aim is to provide a critical analysis of the phenomenon of judiciarization of people suffering from a mental illness and its impact on nursing practice. To explore the issues inherent to this phenomenon, we employed the methodology of discursive analysis greatly inspired by the work of French philosopher Michel Foucault. The results of this analysis push our reflection on the experiences and practices that take place at the psychiatric and judicial interface, engaging in a critic of underlying goals of public protection, social control, and coercion being incorporated to nursing practice. While acting in seemingly humanistic and therapeutic roles of care, nurses are simultaneously and inevitably fulfilling a mandate to social control which, to date, remains relatively under documented.

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A Tribute to the Late William J. Curran

The Journal of Law Medicine & Ethics ◽

10.1017/s1073110500004058 ◽

1996 ◽

Vol 24 (3) ◽

pp. 274-275

Author(s):

O. Lawrence ◽

J.D. Gostin

Keyword(s):

Mental Health ◽

Health Care ◽

Mental Illness ◽

United Nations ◽

Mental Health Care ◽

Harvard University ◽

Legal Medicine ◽

General Assembly ◽

International Institute ◽

University Professor

In the summer of 1979, a group of experts on law, medicine, and ethics assembled in Siracusa, Sicily, under the auspices of the International Commission of Jurists and the International Institute of Higher Studies in Criminal Science, to draft guidelines on the rights of persons with mental illness. Sitting across the table from me was a quiet, proud man of distinctive intelligence, William J. Curran, Frances Glessner Lee Professor of Legal Medicine at Harvard University. Professor Curran was one of the principal drafters of those guidelines. Many years later in 1991, after several subsequent re-drafts by United Nations (U.N.) Rapporteur Erica-Irene Daes, the text was adopted by the U.N. General Assembly as the Principles for the Protection of Persons with Mental Illness and for the Improvement of Mental Health Care. This was the kind of remarkable achievement in the field of law and medicine that Professor Curran repeated throughout his distinguished career.

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