As cases of mental conditions rise in Kenya, new research suggests that the media is fuelling the crisis.
A study published by Lancet, a medical journal, shows about 70 percent of people with mental health conditions say that the media makes stigma and discrimination worse, barring them from reaching their full potential, harms them further, and at worst contributes to suicidal behaviours.
“Media around the world – including TV, radio, newspapers, online news, and social media platforms – is perpetuating a global mental health crisis,” the report released yesterday reads.
The Lancet Commission on Ending Stigma and Discrimination in Mental Health gathered mental health experts from leading global research centres, mental health organisations and people with lived experience to collectively challenge mental health stigma and discrimination for the first time.
“Careless language and imagery used online and in news reports fuels stigmatising attitudes, barring people with mental health conditions from access to basic human rights – including healthcare, education, employment,” said Charlene Sunkel, founder and CEO of the Global Mental Health Peer Network, co-Chair of the Lancet Commission report.
“This is more than a mental health crisis, it is a human rights crisis“, she adds.
The experts say mental health stigma and discrimination has contributed to a range of problems from damaging one’s prospects of getting married, being excluded from school, social spaces and the workplace, loss of property and inheritance, denial of rights to vote, and poorer health care.
Kenya has tried to increase awareness of a number of mental health conditions such as schizophrenia, psychosis, bipolar disorder, depression, anxiety, dementia, eating disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and post-traumatic stress disorder, but taboo still lingers. There are also conditions such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in children or young people.
The experts are now pushing for training and support to shape the mental health narrative.
Kenya loses about four lives due to suicide every day, with men and young people most affected.
The report says in relation to suicide, the media play a major role in influencing ignorance and prejudice and can perpetuate stigma through irresponsible portrayals of individuals who have self-harmed or died by suicide or reduce stigma through by sharing helpful information or mobilising campaigns to improve public opinion and attitudes.
“Adherence to suicide reporting guidelines is especially low in low-income countries, where suicides are often sensationalised, stigmatised, and even criminalised in their portrayals in the media,” the report notes, which surveyed participants from 45 countries including Kenya.
