As ABC Entertainment prepares tonight to premiere its new series, Wonderland, nine major mental health organizations have joined together as the Mental Health Coalition Against Stigma in Hollywood, calling on the White House to use its influence with the entertainment industry to help lead a challenge to the stigmatization of mental illness in movies and television shows.
In recent months we have received reports from parents appalled at the character "Psycho" featured in the Max Steel television series and sold as an action figure by Mattel. In addition, Sony is promoting hurtful, inaccurate, dehumanizing stigma about people with mental illnesses in connection with violent video games.
The National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (NAMI) has launched a protest of products marketed by Sony Corporation of America and Mattel, Inc. that violate the U.S. Surgeon General's call on the entertainment industry to eliminate the stigma that surrounds mental illness.
[…] cultural values with the pressure to assimilate to mainstream American society. Additionally, an emphasis on community identity can create a strong burden of expectations, which may increase stigma and shame if a person doesn’t meet those expectations. Barriers To Mental Health Care Compared to those of other racial/ethnic backgrounds, Asian americans are least likely […]
The U.S. Army's Ready and Resilient Campaign aims to prevent suicides and eliminate the stigma of seeking mental health treatment.
[…] viewed as a sign of weakness. In a world of machismo, weakness isn’t something you want to acknowledge. While getting treatment is a struggle in itself, eliminating stigma is one of the steps that can help encourage athletes, and the general public alike, to get treatment. Last season the Vancouver Canucks, along with the […]
[…] the age of 25. Why do these mental health disparities exist? The American Psychiatric Association suggests that health disparities for people in the LGBTQ+ community stem from stigma and discrimination, complicating the process of seeking health care and finding social support. As many of us have witnessed in our own communities, rampant homophobia and […]
[…] Behavior and Normalize My Experience After several months of making jokes at my own expense (and, of course, unpacking this behavior in therapy), I realized that the stigma and judgment I feared was not coming from those around me — it was coming from me. My offensive quips to cut the tension only perpetuated […]
[…] where haunted houses are set up as “haunted asylums” with depictions of people with mental illness as violent monsters. Costumes also are sold of “mental patients” in straitjackets. Stigma is No Treat Even worse are cases where a person will hang a figure in a noose from a tree in their yard—not knowing or recalling […]
Created in partnership with NAMI, the new documentary Beyond Silence highlights three courageous individuals determined to break through the silence of mental illness stigma by sharing their mental health journeys with the world.
NAMI HelpLine is available M-F, 10 a.m. – 10 p.m. ET. Call 800-950-6264,
text “NAMI” to 62640, or email. In a crisis, call or text 988 (24/7).
