To the Editor: Mental health literacy of the general public is suboptimal, and knowledge and attitudes about some mental illnesses, such as schizophrenia and substance use disorders, are particularly poor.1 The media have been implicated in contributing to overall low levels of mental health literacy, with studies showing that mental illness is commonly portrayed negatively and linked with crime.2,3 However, few studies have considered whether particular mental illnesses are especially likely to be “framed” in the context of crime.
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- 1 Program Evaluation Unit, School of Population Health, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC.
- 2 School of Professional Communication, University of Canberra, Canberra, ACT.
- 3 Queensland Centre for Mental Health Research, University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD.
- 1. Jorm AF. Mental health literacy: public knowledge and beliefs about mental disorders. Br J Psychiatry 2000; 177: 396-401.
- 2. Granello D, Pauley P, Carmichael A. Relationship of the media to attitudes toward people with mental illness. J Humanistic Counseling Educ Dev 1999; 38: 98-103.
- 3. Coverdale J, Nairn R, Claasen D. Depictions of mental illness in print media: a prospective national sample. Aust N Z J Psychiatry 2002; 36: 697-700.
- 4. Pirkis J, Blood RW, Francis C, et al. The Media Monitoring Project: a baseline description of how the Australian media report and portray suicide and mental health and illness. Canberra: Commonwealth Department of Health and Aged Care, 2001.
- 5. Stuart HL, Arboleda-Florez J. A public health perspective on violent offences among persons with mental illness. Psychiatr Serv 2001; 52: 654-659.