Media guidance

Guidance for those working in the media on reporting mental health – also useful for anyone else writing, talking or thinking about mental health!

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Overview:

Below are links to guidance and information on:

1. Language and terminology
2. Image choice
3. Reporting suicide
4. Reporting violence and dangerousness
5. Media advisory service from Time to Change
   

   

Quick links:

• Time to Change guidance on language & terminology
• Samaritans guidance on reporting suicide
• Time to Change Media Advice Service

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1. LANGUAGE & TERMINOLOGY

• Time to Change advice on language and terminology (in the form of a handy table!) & News Media Guidelines

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• Shift media handbook:
  • Overview (introduction – p.5)
  • The section on language and terminology (p.21)
  • Here are some excerpts:

“Don’t use terms like ‘psycho’, ‘schizo’ and ‘nutter’ about someone with a mental health problem – they can create ‘a climate of public fear and rejection'”

“Defining people as ‘a schizophrenic’ or ‘a depressive’ can cause offence.”

“‘A person with’ is preferable to ‘a person suffering from'”

“Avoid using the term ‘the mentally-ill’ – use ‘mental health patients’ or ‘people with mental health problems’”.

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• Guardian Style Guide – Scroll down for “mental health”

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• UK Office for Disability Issues – Guidance on language

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• Samaritans media guidance for reporting suicide (pdf) (p.11 – best practice in language use, for instance, avoid using “commit” suicide, since it is no longer illegal)

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2. IMAGE CHOICE

Time to Change on choosing images for mental health stories

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3. REPORTING SUICIDE

• Euregenas (European Regions Enforcing Action Against Suicide) guidelines on reporting suicide

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• Samaritans media guidelines for reporting suicide (2008) including:
  • Advice to the media on copycats and social contagion; dramatic portrayals of suicide; photo selection and placement; and working with the bereaved
  • Tips for journalists on reporting suicide
  • Guide to media myths about suicide
  • Guide to New Media and Suicide
  • Best practice in language and terminology (pdf) (p.11)

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• The Shift Media Handbook on reporting suicide and the do’s and don’ts of reporting suicide (p.18)

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4. MENTAL ILLNESS, VIOLENCE & DANGEROUSNESS

• Mind on mental health and dangerousness

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• Time to Change on mental health and violence

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• Shift Media Handbook on:
  • reporting mental health and violence (p.13)
  • the do’s and don’ts of covering violence (p.14)
  • violence and mental illness – the facts (p.15)

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5. MEDIA ADVISORY SERVICE

Time to Change has a media advisory service – “Are you a journalist who wants to know the difference between schizophrenia and a personality disorder?  Are you planning to write a drama script about mental health but don’t know how to make it realistic? Do you work in a breaking news environment and come out in a cold sweat when a story featuring someone with a mental health problem flashes across the wires? If so, we are here to help.”

• Support and advice for journalists
• Help when making a documentary
• Portrayal of mental health in soaps and dramas
• News media guidance booklet

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