Mass media plays a fundamental role in how communities understand mental health and its treatment. However, the effect of major events such as economic crises on the depiction of mental health is still unclear.
Aims:
This study aimed at analyzing representations of mental health and its treatment and the impact of the 2008 economic crisis.
Methods:
In total, 1,000 articles were randomly selected from two newspapers from a period before and after the economic crisis. These articles were analyzed with a closed coding system that classified the news as good or bad news according to the presence of themes associated with positive or stigmatizing representations.
Results:
The results show a positive representation of mental health and a negative representation of treatment. Furthermore, the economic crisis had a negative impact on the representation of mental health, but not on treatment.
Conclusion:
These findings suggest that the representation of mental health is multifaceted and may be affected differently in its dimensions. There is a need for stigma-reducing interventions that both account for this complexity and are sensitive to context and period.
BarkerC.PistrangN.ElliottR. (2002). Research methods in clinical psychology: An introduction for students and practitioners. West Sussex, UK: John Wiley.
2.
BauerM. W.GaskellG. (2008). Social representations theory: A progressive research programme for social psychology. Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour, 38, 335–353. doi:10.1111/j.1468-5914.2008.00374.x
3.
Caldas deAlmeidaJ. (2009). Portuguese national mental health plan (2007–2016): Executive summary. Mental Health and Family Medicine, 6, 233–244.
CorriganP. W. (2004). How stigma interferes with mental health care. American Psychologist, 59, 614–625. doi:10.1037/0003-066X.59.7.614
7.
CorriganP. W.WatsonA. C.GraciaG.SlopenN.RasinskiK.HallL. L. (2005). Newspaper stories as measures of structural stigma. Psychiatric Services, 56, 551–556. doi:10.1176/appi.ps.56.5.551
8.
FosterJ. L. H. (2006). Media presentation of the mental health bill and representations of mental health problems. Journal of Community and Applied Social Psychology, 16, 285–300. doi:10.1002/casp.863
9.
GoughB. (2007). ‘Real men don’t diet’: An analysis of contemporary newspaper representations of men, food and health. Social Science and Medicine, 64, 326–337. doi:10.1016/j.socscimed.2006.09.011
10.
GouldenR.CorkerE.Evans-LackoS.RoseD.ThornicroftG.HendersonC. (2011). Newspaper coverage of mental illness in the UK, 1992–2008. BMC Public Health, 11(1), Article 796. doi:10.1186/1471-2458-11-796
11.
HawC.HawtonK.GunnellD.PlattS. (2015). Economic recession and suicidal behaviour: Possible mechanisms and ameliorating factors. International Journal of Social Psychiatry, 61, 73–81. doi:10.1177/0020764014536545
12.
HowarthC. (2006). A social representation is not a quiet thing: Exploring the critical potential of social representations theory. The British Journal of Social Psychology, 45, 65–86. doi:10.1348/014466605X43777
13.
HuwsJ. C.JonesR. S. P. (2011). Missing voices: Representations of autism in British newspapers, 1999–2008. British Journal of Learning Disabilities, 39, 98–104. doi:10.1111/j.1468-3156.2010.00624.x
14.
JoffeH. (2003). Risk: From perception to social representation. The British Journal of Social Psychology, 42, 55–73. doi:10.1348/014466603763276126
15.
KhosravinikM. (2009). The representation of refugees, asylum seekers and immigrants in British newspapers during the Balkan conflict (1999) and the British general election (2005). Discourse & Society, 20, 477–498. doi:10.1177/0957926509104024
16.
LandisJ. R.KochG. G. (1977). The measurement of observer agreement for categorical data. Biometrics, 33(1), 159–174. doi:10.2307/2529310
17.
LanovazM. J.DufourM.-M.ShahS. (2015). Newspaper coverage of autism treatment in Canada: 10-year trends (2004–2013). The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry / La Revue Canadienne de Psychiatrie, 60, 329–333. doi:10.1177/070674371506000706
18.
LyonsA. C. (2000). Examining media representations: Benefits for health psychology. Journal of Health Psychology, 5, 349–358. doi:10.1177/135910530000500307
19.
MaressoA.MladovskyP.ThomsonS.SaganA.KaranikolosM.RichardsonE.… KlugeH. (2015). Economic crisis, health systems and health in Europe: Country experience. Copenhagen: World Health Organization Europe, European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies.
20.
MorantN. (2006). Social representations and professional knowledge: The representation of mental illness among mental health practitioners. British Journal of Social Psychology, 45, 817–838. doi:10.1348/014466605X81036
21.
MoscoviciS. (2001). Social representations: Explorations in social psychology. New York City: New York University Press.
22.
MoscoviciS. (2008). Psychoanalysis: Its image and its public. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press.
23.
NawkováL.NawkaA.AdámkováT.RukavinaT. V.HolcnerováP.KuzmanM. R.… RabochJ. (2012). The picture of mental health/illness in the printed media in three central European countries. Journal of Health Communication, 17, 22–40. doi:10.1080/10810730.2011.571341
24.
NetoD. D.SilvaA. N. (2008). Characterization of readmissions at a Portuguese psychiatric hospital: An analysis over a 21 month period. The European Journal of Psychiatry, 22, 69–76. doi:10.4321/s0213-61632008000200002
25.
SilvaM.CardosoG.SaracenoB.Caldas de AlmeidaJ. (2015). A saúde mental e a crise económica. In SantanaP. (Ed.), Território e saúde mental em tempos de crise. Coimbra, Portugal: Imprensa da Universidade de Coimbra.
ThornicroftA.GouldenR.SheferG.RhydderchD.RoseD.WilliamsP.… HendersonC. (2013). Newspaper coverage of mental illness in England 2008–2011. British Journal of Psychiatry, 202, 64–70. doi:10.1192/bjp.bp.112.112920
28.
van TrigtA. M.de Jong-van den BergL. T. W.Haaijer-RuskampF. M.WillemsJ.TrompT. F. J. (1994). Journalists and their sources of ideas and information on medicines. Social Science & Medicine, 38, 637–643. doi:10.1016/0277-9536(94)90261-5
29.
VilhauerR. P. (2015). Depictions of auditory verbal hallucinations in news media. International Journal of Social Psychiatry, 61, 58–63. doi:10.1177/0020764014535757
30.
WahlO. E.WoodA.RichardsR. (2002). Newspaper coverage of mental illness: Is it changing?Psychiatric Rehabilitation Skills, 6, 9–31. doi:10.1080/10973430208408417
31.
WasherP. (2004). Representations of SARS in the British newspapers. Social Science & Medicine, 59, 2561–2571. doi:10.1016/j.socscimed.2004.03.038
32.
WhalO. F. (2003). Depictions of mental illness in children’s media depictions of mental illnesses in children’s media. Journal of Mental Health, 12, 249–258. doi:10.1080/0963823031000118230
33.
WilkinsonP.McgillP. (2009). Representation of people with intellectual disabilities in a British newspaper in 1983 and 2001. Journal of Applied Research in Intellectual Disabilities, 22, 65–76. doi:10.1111/j.1468-3148.2008.00453.x
34.
World Health Organization. (2000). Preventing suicide: A resource for media professionals. Geneva, Switzerland: Author.
