Swedish Mental Health Nurses' Experiences of Portrayals of Mental Illness in Public Media

News reporting about mental illness lack perspectives of the mentally ill themselves and it is almost exclusively psychiatrists who are accessed when healthcare staff is consulted. The perspective of mental health nurses might contribute to the public understanding of mental illness. The purpose of...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Issues in mental health nursing 2020-04, Vol.41 (4), p.348-354
Main Authors: Liljeqvist, Mattias, Kling, Sara, Hallén, Malin, Jormfeldt, Henrika
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Attitude of Health Personnel
Bias
Communications Media
Content analysis
Dissemination
Health care
Humans
Illnesses
Journalists
Mental Disorders
Mental health
Mental health care
News
Nurse's Role
Nurses
Nursing
Psychiatric nurses
Psychiatric Nursing
Psychiatric-mental health nursing
Psychiatrists
Public opinion
Social media
Social Stigma
Stereotyping
Sweden
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Summary:News reporting about mental illness lack perspectives of the mentally ill themselves and it is almost exclusively psychiatrists who are accessed when healthcare staff is consulted. The perspective of mental health nurses might contribute to the public understanding of mental illness. The purpose of this study was to describe mental health nurses' experiences of how mental illness is portrayed in media. Eight semi-structured interviews were conducted with qualified mental health nurses. A qualitative content analysis resulted in three categories: Negative portrayals of mental illness, Inconclusive images of mental illness and Biased dissemination of different perspectives. The conclusion of this study is that mental health nurses experience media portrayals of mental illness as negative and misleading with too much emphasis on the medical perspective while a holistic mental health nursing perspective is heavily obscured. Mental health nurses need to take a more prominent role in public reporting on mental health to resolve the current lack of relevant facts regarding mental illness. Further research is needed regarding portrayals of mental illness in social media and how the current lack of perspectives affects public perceptions of mental illness. In addition, further studies regarding the viewpoints of journalists reporting on mental illness are required.
ISSN:0161-2840
1096-4673
1096-4673
DOI:10.1080/01612840.2019.1658244