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Public discourse on mental health and psychiatry: Representations in Swedish newspapers

Effective mental health promotion builds on cross-sectoral collaboration with non-health sectors, including education, housing, employment and industry, transport, arts, sports, urban planning and justice. Common principles and recommendations for modern mental health promotion were laid by the Melbourne Charter in 2008 (17). Mental health promotion aims to improve the mental health of a population by strengthening wellbeing. Consequently, the “Health in All Policies” approach (8) was developed, targeting determinants of mental health across policy areas in the whole population, reaching out to areas other than the health sector, and highlighting the links of mental health to productivity (9). Later in life, social relationships are critical for promoting wellbeing and buffering against mental ill-health (6,7). It is now recognized that the foundations of mental health are laid in early life, and even in the prenatal period (4).

  • Community systems-strengthening interventions focus on developing empowering processes and building a sense of ownership and social responsibility within community members.
  • Dumit (2003) notes that neurologicalconceptions of mental illness have become so persuasive that the brain has almostbecome a synecdoche for one’s identity.
  • The findings ofour study largely confirm Briggsand Hallin’s (2016) argument that, in the context of (mental) health,current understandings of empowerment are largely embedded in patient–consumermodels of biocommunicability, which emphasize client/consumer-centered practice andindividual decision-making as leading principles of (mental) health care.
  • This approach to discourse analytic research can suggest in whose interest it might be that certain discourses or discursive repertoires are not heard, in other words why it happens, and the effects of the absence for the individuals concerned.
  • Primary prevention addresses wider determinants across whole populations, and is of special interest to public mental health.

Accessibility Information

mental health in public discourse

As social media have become an increasingly popular source of information, they create opportunities as well as threats for mental health discourse. Such discourse may lead to improvement in resources being allocated to managing mental illness as well as promoting good mental health at the population level. Better-informed and evidence-based public discourse, led by mental health professionals in collaboration with other institutions, is likely to lead to a more appropriate response from public policy-makers and funders. The public discourse on mental health is vital but should be based on the best available evidence and avoid a dramatic media-driven approach. Engaging the public in discussion of mental health is important, but such discussion must include both mental health and mental illness.

mental health in public discourse

The research group participated equally as participants and Brand generosity and mental health facilitated the process by holding a focus on recovery-oriented network meetings 5,18,20. The cooperative inquiry took place in three workshops where the participants discussed their experiences with network meetings and recovery. Users did not have serious symptoms, such as social anxiety or psychotic delusions. Professionals and users were recruited as participants in the cooperative process.

mental health in public discourse

Multimodality: Examining Visual Representations of Dementia in Public Health Discourse

The emphasis on such medical literacy has been related tolinear understandings of news media as means to transmit taken-for-grantedscientific information to a lay audience (Hallin & Briggs, 2015; Seale, 2003). One of the world’s largest collections of eBooks in science, technology, engineering, medicine, humanities and social science. Provides access to more than 2,700 high-quality, cross-disciplinary journals spanning Humanities and Social Sciences, Science and Technology, Engineering, Medicine and Healthcare. They are built around customer needs with the aim of facilitating discovery and allowing users to access relevant research and information quickly and easily, wherever they are.

Rhetorical Analysis

mental health in public discourse

Narrative language was not used to present the users’ perspective regarding the recovery-oriented cross-sectoral network meeting between a mental health hospital and community mental health. We tick off a list; where should you get your medicine, where should you sleep, who should do what … So, a lot of coordination, practical(HPC (HPC represents health professionals from community mental healthcare.)). The purpose was to discuss opportunities and limitations for a recovery-oriented cross-sectoral collaboration between mental health hospitals and community mental healthcare. The research group comprised five professionals, three with a Ph.D. from postdoc to professor level, a nurse with an academic degree and an educator with lived experiences in mental health services. In addition, five users with experience with mental health services in both sectors participated.

mental health in public discourse

Usingthe method of cluster-agon analysis, we identified four terminological clustersin our data, in which mental health/illness is conceptualized as “dangerous,” “amatter of lifestyle,” “a unique story and experience,” and “socially situated.”We furthermore found that we cannot unambiguously assume that biopsychiatricdiscourses or discourses aimed at empathy and understanding are eitherexclusively stigmatizing or exclusively empowering and normalizing. The aim of this study is to explore how healthcare professionals and users perceive recovery-oriented cross-sectoral network meetings and identify which discourses manifest themselves within the field of mental healthcare. We should all consider how popular culture intersects with mental health and illness and reflect on whether we are consuming or participating in social media in a way that is further stigmatizing mental illness. The recent dialogue surrounding Roan serves to demonstrate that, despite seemingly greater discourse regarding the importance of mental health in popular culture, stigma remains entrenched in public perceptions of mental illness. Our analysisof the performative effects of the terminological clusters that underpin publicdiscussions of mental health/illness revealed that we cannot take for granted thestraightforward destigmatizing or empowering effects of biopsychatric discourses ordiscourses aimed at empathy and understanding. Our findings illustrate that public discussions of mental health/illness inevitablydraw on terminological clusters, with the clusters of “mental illness as dangerous,”“mental wellbeing as a matter of lifestyle,” “experiencing mental health problems asa unique story,” and “mental illness as socially situated” being the most dominantin our data.

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