A 2013 Mental Health Round Up

     I can certainly say that 2013 has been another big year for mental health. the year has seen increases in media coverage on mental health; some good and some bad. The beginning of the year saw Time To Change's advertising campaign come on to our telly boxes, encouraging us to talk about mental health and to break down the wall of stigma that surrounds it, mid-year saw Stephen Fry opening up and talking about his experiences of suicidal feelings and his previous attempt last year, and only a couple of months ago saw the outrage at Tesco, Asda and Amazon and their selling of 'mental patient' Halloween costumes, as well as Thorpe Parks offensive 'Asylum' 'attraction' - just to name a few

     In this blog post I have compiled a list, like I did last year, of this years biggest stories on mental health.

     January saw the TV screenings of Time To Change's advert on mental health stigma, encouraging viewers to start conversations about mental health, with an aim to remove the 'fear and awkwardness that stop people from talking about mental health' [1], this time focusing more on people that do not necessarily have much knowledge about mental health but helping them to feel that they can start a conversation.

     May 16th saw Parliament give another debate on mental health, following the landmark debate that occurred last June; where a number of MPs spoke out about their experiences of mental health problems for the first time. Paul Burstow, Charles Walker and Madeleine Moon initiated the debate, and covered a wide range of subjects including: the addressing of inequalities between physical and mental health services; discussion of improving acute and crises services; tackling the issues of the inequalities experienced by ethnic minority in mental health services; talks over making improvements to the Work Capability Assessment (WCA); as well as talks over providing better support for people with mental health problems wishing to enter the workplace, as well as, working with employers to build better support working environments. If you wish to read more you can read the proceedings in the Hansard here.

     Early June saw Stephen Fry speak out about his experiences of bipolar disorder, suicidal feelings, and his suicide attempt last year. Whilst Fry has been commended for his openness and raising awareness of bipolar depression and suicide, unfortunately there have been one too many insensitive troglodytes making sarky, misinformed comments - highlighting that there is still quite a way to go in tackling mental health stigma.

     July witnessed BBC 3's 'It's A Mad World Season', a week of programmes that covered a wide range of topics surrounding mental health, similar to the project carried out by Channel 4 (Channel 4 Goes Mad) in the previous year. The week saw the broadcasting of a number of documentaries and programmes that explored mental health units, obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), depression, suicide, eating disorders, as well as delving into other issues such as the wall of stigma that surrounds mental health, as well as the effects of funding cuts to health services.

     In August Time to Change launched its 'It's time to talk' campaign, with an aim to stamp out the stigma surrounding mental health, as well as encouraging others to talk about mental health. Ambassadors such as Frankie Sandford, Ruby Wax, Rachel Bruno, Russell Kane and many more wore #TimeToTalk temporary tattoos and took to social networking sites to help further the campaign.

My #TimeToTalk tat

     Late September experienced an uproar when supermarkets Asda and Tesco, as well as on-line retailer Amazon, were selling 'mental patient' fancy dress costumes. After many complaints and petitions, the supermarkets, at last, withdrew these 'costumes', apologized and made donations to mental health charities. Whilst such an atrocity should have never happened in the first place, this gave us an opportunity to see the work we have ahead of us, as well as how many people are willing to stand for mental health and challenge the prejudices and stigmas that surround it.

     October saw another uproar, at Thorpe Park's 'The Asylum'. The 'attraction' included walking through a mock psychiatric hospital, whereby 'actors' would pretend to be mental patients; some of which jumping down from fences, jumping out onto visitors and others chasing them with chainsaws. Thousands signed a petition to urge the park to close the 'attraction' and to rename it. A spokeswoman for Thorpe park said that there are going to be meetings at some time after the new year; as of yet, however, we are still unsure as whether such an appalling attraction is yet to see another year.

     2013, in my opinion, has been a notable year for mental health; it has seen quite a few bricks removed from the wall of stigma; however, more still needs to be done - not only to keep breaking down this wall, but also removing those stubborn bricks, as well as preventing these bricks being piled back on. Let us see what 2014 has in store.

Wishing each and every one of you all the best for the new year!

BMNM.

[1]  http://www.time-to-change.org.uk/about-us/about-our-campaign/start-your-conversation-2013

Thorpe Park - The Asylum

   Last month it was Tesco and Asda, this month the culprit is Thorpe Park. This Halloween the troglodytes Thorpe Park and Liongate have teamed up to bring theme-park goers 'terrifyingly entertaining horror attractions', one of them being called 'The Asylum'.

     The 'attraction' includes walking through a mock psychiatric hospital, with 'actors' playing mental patients; some of which are jumping down from fences, jumping out onto visitors and others chasing them with chainsaws. Top marks to Thorpe Park for reinforcing an incorrect negative stereotype of mental illness.

     Discriminating against people with mental illnesses is just utterly unacceptable. This makes me sick to my stomach. Once again, some idiot(s) has thought that doing something like would be acceptable and that nobody would batter an eyelid. No!

     Many people, including myself took to Twitter to complain and show our disgust to Thorpe Park. They had the audacity to tweet this:

     'A fantastical experience'?! What on earth are they thinking? How can they get it so wrong? The only right about that tweet is that it is not 'a realistic portrayal of a mental health institution'. That being the case why are they even hosting such an 'attraction'? Do they not realise how offensive this is to so many people? Whether it is intended or not to be a realistic portrayal it still reinforces the negative stereotype that people with mental health problems are violent and murderous. When in actual fact people with mental health problems are far more likely to be victims of violence - it is things such as these that can evoke such violence and hostility towards people with mental health problems. As well as this, such hostility is what can prevent someone from seeking the help they desperately need.

     I fear that Thorpe Park don't care what we think, or how much they have offended so many people. As long as it makes them money then that is all they care about. I am suggesting a boycott; hit them where it hurts - their wallet. Perhaps that is the only way to get this 'attraction' withdrawn, unless they have any shred of human decency or compassion (which I doubt they do). This is not the end of this.

     Click on the link below to sign the petition to get 'Thorpe Park to close the stigmatising Asylum maze and to donate to Time to Change':
http://www.change.org/en-GB/petitions/thorpe-park-close-down-the-stigmatising-asylum-maze?share_id=EPOrwMGCZf&utm_campaign=share_button_mobile&utm_medium=facebook&utm_source=share_petition

BMNM.