The Spike Milligan Public Speaking Competition

The Spike Milligan Public Speaking Competition is a series of events conducted by the Irish Division of The Royal College of Psychiatrists' Public Education Committee. The initiative began as a local project, as part of the Changing Minds campaign. It is aimed at developing lifelong positive attitudes towards mental illness by doctors in training, and at redressing some of the stigma and negativity towards mental illness prevalent among trained doctors. It also aims to provide them with a positive experience of public speaking, in particular on mental health topics, and to enhance skills in communication with the public.

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Stigma 1, Psychiatrists 0

Psychiatric Bulletin ◽

10.1192/pb.23.7.430 ◽

1999 ◽

Vol 23 (7) ◽

pp. 430-430 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Geoffrey Searle

Keyword(s):

Mental Illness ◽

Public Education ◽

Royal College ◽

Mentally Ill ◽

The Public ◽

Education Campaign ◽

Public Education Campaign ◽

The Media

I think I can honestly say that I am a seasoned complainer, although I am careful not to attempt to be Mary Whitehouse and I do not assiduously scan the media looking for trouble. My interest in the area of stigmatization started with an episode of the TV drama Boon, where they suddenly had a character become ‘mentally ill’ so that he could conveniently shoot the hero to achieve a cliff-hanging end-of-series episode. Subsequently I specialised in the portrayal of mental illness in dramatic productions, joined the Public Education Campaign divisional network and had some media training. I have been listed as an expert in the portrayal of mental illness for five years but have never been approached for my advice on this area. However, following this year's announcement of the new Royal College of Psychiatrists' campaign ‘Changing Minds: Every Family in the Land’, I obtained all the names and addresses in Deborah Hart and Jill Phillipson's article above and stood ready to ‘do my bit’ for truth and honesty.

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‘Public psychiatry’: a neglected professional role?

Advances in Psychiatric Treatment ◽

10.1192/apt.bp.105.001818 ◽

2008 ◽

Vol 14 (5) ◽

pp. 339-346 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

Michael J. Smith

Keyword(s):

Mental Health ◽

Mental Illness ◽

Public Education ◽

Well Being ◽

Professional Role ◽

The Public ◽

Or Practice ◽

The Status ◽

Public Psychiatry

The importance of mental health to our social, financial and physical well-being has gained better recognition in recent years. The work of psychiatry is to understand, prevent and treat mental illness, and should therefore be of compelling interest to the public. Yet few care about the profession or practice of psychiatry other than psychiatrists themselves. The public and the profession would both benefit from a ‘conversation’ about practical, moral and political aspects of contemporary mental health. This should be a dialogue of equals, distinct from didactic approaches to ‘public education’ or from a ‘media psychiatry’ that exists primarily to entertain. This discourse would help to improve care, diminish stigma, promote recovery and improve the status of the profession itself. This article proposes that this kind of ‘public psychiatry’ should take its place as one of four interdependent professional domains.

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Climbing Mount Everest: tackling the media at a regional level

Psychiatric Bulletin ◽

10.1192/pb.22.2.111 ◽

1998 ◽

Vol 22 (2) ◽

pp. 111-112 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Tom Harrison

Keyword(s):

Mental Health ◽

Public Education ◽

Royal College ◽

Regional Level ◽

Health Issues ◽

Mount Everest ◽

Mental Health Issues ◽

West Midlands ◽

The Media ◽

Wide Group

Regional Public Education Officers of the Royal College of Psychiatrists are strategically placed to influence and improve the coverage of mental health issues in the media. Their role needs to be enhanced and clarified, and a proposal is being put forward in the College to achieve this. One possible way of working locally is illustrated through the work of West Midlands Insight, which demonstrates the value of working with a wide group of people, including those who have experienced mental ill health.

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Burden of mental health disability in Kerala: A secondary time trend analysis from 2002 to 2018

European Journal of Public Health ◽

10.1093/eurpub/ckaa166.1073 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 30 (Supplement_5) ◽

Author(s):

J Joseph ◽

H Sankar ◽

D Nambiar

Keyword(s):

Mental Health ◽

Mental Illness ◽

Mental Retardation ◽

Public Sector ◽

Human Resources ◽

Mental Health Disorders ◽

The State ◽

The Public ◽

Health Infrastructure ◽

Health Disorders

Abstract The fourth target of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 3 advocates for the promotion of mental health and wellbeing. The Indian state of Kerala is recognized for its gains in health and development but has substantial burden of mental health ailments. Historical analysis is vital to understand the pattern of mental health morbidity. The current study focusses on comparable estimates available from three largescale population-based surveys in India to explore trends in prevalence of mental health disorders over the years and map resources and infrastructure available for mental health care in Kerala. We undertook a secondary analysis of national demographic surveys from 2002 to 2018 which reported information on mental health and availability of health infrastructure and human resources. Data were collated and descriptive analyses were conducted. We compared the national and state level estimates over the years to study the trend in the prevalence of mental health disability. The prevalence of mental retardation and intellectual disability in Kerala increased from 194 per hundred thousand persons in 2002 to 300 per hundred thousand persons in 2018, two times higher to the national average. The prevalence of mental illness increased from 272 per hundred thousand people to 400 per hundred thousand people in sixteen years. The prevalence was higher among males (statistical significance was not indicated) in mental illness and mental retardation. 2018 data showed that the public sector had 0.01 hospitals and 5.53 beds per hundred thousand persons available for mental health treatment. Results showed a substantial increase in mental health illness over the 16-year study period that has affected males and females, as well as all social classes of the state. The current health infrastructure and human resources in the public sector of the state are inadequate to meet the current burden of the problem and to ensure universal access to care for its population. Key messages The trend in prevalence of mental health disorders in the state is increasing across the years. There is a mismatch between the extend of the problem and resources available in public sector.

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Mental Health Ontologies

10.47788/xsip3748 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Janna Hastings

Keyword(s):

Mental Health ◽

Mental Illness ◽

Public Discourse ◽

Theoretical Frameworks ◽

The Public ◽

Holistic Understanding ◽

Public Health Challenges ◽

Health Related ◽

The Media ◽

The Way

Mental health presents one of the defining public health challenges of our time. Proponents of different conceptions of what mental illness is wage war for the hearts and minds of patients, practitioners, policy-makers, and the public. Debate and fragmentation around the nature of the entities that feature in the mental health domain divide resources and reduce progress. The way mental health is publicly discussed in the media has tangible effects, in terms of stigma, access to healthcare and resources, and private expectations of recovery. This book explores in detail the sorts of statements that are made about mental health in the media and public reporting of scientific research, grounding them in the wider context of the theoretical frameworks, assumptions and metaphors that they draw from. The author shows how a holistic understanding of the way that different aspects of mental illness are interrelated can be developed from evidence-based interpretation of the latest research findings. She offers some ideas about corrective, integrative approaches to discussing mental health-related matters publicly that may reduce the opposition between conceptualisations while still aiming to reduce stigma, shame and blame. In particular, she emphasises that discourse in the media needs to be anchored to an overview of all the research results across the field and argues that this could be achieved using new technological infrastructures. The author provides an integrative account of what mental health is, together with an improved understanding of the factors driving the persistence of oppositional accounts in the public discourse. The book will be of benefit to researchers, practitioners and students in the domain of mental health.

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Mental Illness and the Media: Part II. Content Analysis of Press Coverage of Mental Health Topics

The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry ◽

10.1177/070674378603100509 ◽

1986 ◽

Vol 31 (5) ◽

pp. 431-433 ◽

Cited By ~ 27

Author(s):

M. Matas ◽

N. El-Guebaly ◽

D. Harper ◽

M. Green ◽

A. Peterkin

Keyword(s):

Mental Health ◽

Mental Illness ◽

Content Analysis ◽

Public Image ◽

Press Coverage ◽

Negative Attitudes ◽

The Public ◽

Accuracy Check ◽

The Media ◽

Selection Of

The public image of psychiatry has been tarnished in recent years. In order to determine the extent to which press coverage has contributed to negative attitudes towards psychiatry, we conducted a content analysis of a random selection of newspaper articles which appeared over a twenty-year period in two different newspapers. We found that although there had been some minor, cosmetic changes over the years, such as more appropriate headlines and more direct quotes from psychiatric experts, on the whole, content and attitudes had changed very little. An accuracy check of media reporting of forensic cases over a 20-year period revealed that when reporters have access to written material, the accuracy levels are greatly improved.

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Empathy, Burnout, and Attitudes towards Mental Illness among Spanish Mental Health Nurses

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health ◽

10.3390/ijerph19020692 ◽

2022 ◽

Vol 19 (2) ◽

pp. 692

Author(s):

Daniel Román-Sánchez ◽

Juan Carlos Paramio-Cuevas ◽

Olga Paloma-Castro ◽

José Luis Palazón-Fernández ◽

Isabel Lepiani-Díaz ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Mental Health ◽

Mental Illness ◽

Mental Disorders ◽

Protective Factor ◽

Maslach Burnout Inventory ◽

Personal Accomplishment ◽

Snowball Sampling ◽

Cross Sectional ◽

Mental Health Nurses ◽

Positive Attitudes

Mental health nurses, together with psychiatrists, are the healthcare professionals who display the highest levels of empathy and the best attitudes towards patients with mental disorders. However, burnout is a common problem among these professionals. The aim of our study is to describe the association between empathy, burnout, and attitudes towards patients with mental disorders among mental health nurses in Spain. A descriptive cross-sectional design was used involving a sample of 750 specialist nurses working in mental health facilities in Spain. An intentional, non-probability, non-discriminative, exponential snowball sampling method was used. The Jefferson Scale of Empathy, the Maslach Burnout Inventory, and the Community Attitudes towards Mental Illness Inventory were used to measure the study variables. A positive correlation was observed between empathy and all the study variables, with the exception of the personal accomplishment dimension of burnout and the social restrictiveness and authoritarianism dimensions of attitudes towards mental illness, where a negative relation was observed. Our findings suggest that empathy is associated with an increase in positive attitudes towards patients with mental disorders, decreasing associated stigma, but did not act as a protective factor against burnout in the study sample.

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Social media, self-harm and suicide

BJPsych Bulletin ◽

10.1192/bjb.2019.94 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 44 (4) ◽

pp. 131-133 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Allan House

Keyword(s):

Mental Health ◽

Social Media ◽

Royal College ◽

Mental Health Problems ◽

Public Debate ◽

The Public ◽

High Profile ◽

Advantages And Disadvantages ◽

Self Harm ◽

Use Of Social Media

SummaryUse of social media by people with mental health problems, and especially those who are prone to self-harm, has potential advantages and disadvantages. This poses a dilemma about how and by how much the form and content of social media sites should be regulated. Unfortunately, participation in the public debate about this dilemma has been restricted and high-profile discussion of necessary action has been focused almost entirely on how much suppression of content is justified. Professional bodies, including the Royal College of Psychiatrists, should be doing much more than they are to shape how the debate is conducted.

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Knowledge and attitudes towards hepatitis C and injecting drug use among mental-health support workers of a community managed organisation

Australian Health Review ◽

10.1071/ah13134 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 37 (5) ◽

pp. 654 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Grenville Rose ◽

Elena Cama ◽

Loren Brener ◽

Carla Treloar

Keyword(s):

Mental Health ◽

Mental Illness ◽

Hepatitis C ◽

Drug Use ◽

Injecting Drug Use ◽

Negative Attitudes ◽

Positive Attitudes ◽

People With Mental Illness ◽

Mental Health Support ◽

Health Support

Objectives People with mental illness are at significantly higher risk of acquiring hepatitis C virus (HCV) compared with the general population. This study assessed knowledge of and attitudes towards people with HCV and people who inject drugs (PWID) among support workers of clients with mental illness. Methods Support workers from a community managed organisation (CMO) in Australia were recruited to complete an online cross-sectional survey. The survey collected data about their knowledge of HCV and attitudes towards PWID and people with HCV. Results Valid responses were received from 117 support workers. Although HCV knowledge was moderate, there were significant knowledge gaps around transmission and treatment of HCV. Higher HCV knowledge was significantly associated with more positive attitudes towards PWID, but not with attitudes towards people with HCV. Participants had more positive attitudes towards people with HCV than towards PWID. Additionally, those with more positive attitudes towards HCV tended to also have more positive attitudes towards PWID. Conclusions Given that people with mental illness are at higher risk of acquiring HCV, these results point to the need for education targeted at support workers of clients with mental illness to increase HCV knowledge and promote positive attitudes towards PWID and people with HCV. What is known about this topic? The limited research available suggests that there are gaps in HCV knowledge among mental-health-service providers, although such research has generally targeted physicians. What does this paper add? This paper is the first to assess HCV knowledge, attitudes towards PWID and HCV among mental-health support workers. The findings suggest that although HCV knowledge is moderate, significant gaps exist, which are related to negative attitudes towards PWID. What are the implications for practitioners? Supportive and non-judgemental care is essential for people with mental illness and HCV, due to the potential for a double stigma arising from negative attitudes towards both mental illness and injecting drug use. This paper highlights the importance of targeted education for workers in the mental-health sector, to increase HCV knowledge and promote positive attitudes towards people with co-occurring mental-health, substance use problems and HCV.

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