Impacts of Negative Portrayal of Mass Media on Individuals with Mental Illness

The objective of the paper is to investigate the impacts of negative portrayal of mass media on individuals with mental illness and the role of registered nurses in educating families, caregivers and community to understand recovery of persons diagnosed with mental illness.

Running Head: NURSING
Nursing
Name
Institution

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Nursing
Abstract
The objective of the paper is to investigate the impacts of negative portrayal of mass
media on individuals with mental illness and the role of registered nurses in educating families,
caregivers and community to understand recovery of persons diagnosed with mental illness. It is
evident that reporting of mental disease in Australia has improved in the recent years; the media
carry on tending to depict mental disease in a manner that promote stigma plus carries on myths
concerning mental health illness. This is probable to have a negative impact on help-seeking,
adherence to treatment and low self-esteem. Nurses have the primary role in providing education
to family members, caregivers and the community on how best to offer optimal care to patients
with mental illness towards recovery. The nurses empower these players to ensure that they give
hope to the persons with mental disorder to face life in a positive manner.

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Table of Contents
Abstract............................................................................................................................................2
Introduction......................................................................................................................................4
Effects of Negative Portrayal of Mass Media on Persons with Mental Illness...............................5
Stigma..........................................................................................................................................5
Self-Esteem..................................................................................................................................6
Medication Adherence.................................................................................................................7
Help-Seeking Behaviours............................................................................................................7
Role of Nurses Education on Families, Caregivers and Community on Helping Mental Ill
Persons.............................................................................................................................................8
Implications.....................................................................................................................................9
Conclusions....................................................................................................................................10
References......................................................................................................................................11

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Introduction
The media have a powerful impact on the hopes for family, parents, as well as children
by developing standards for the way of life, care, respect, as well as society. Whilst the
influence of the mass media is weakening and the secondary groups (school, religious
institutions and state) are time restricted, the influence of the mass media is pervasive and
permanent fixture of human lives. Mass media has been found to have huge influence on mental
illness stigma via exaggerated, inaccurate, as well as comical image they utilize to portray
individuals and providing incorrect information regarding mental illnesses in the society
(Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2007). In the absence of actual experience with mental disease,
people depend on the social media for their perceptions of those individuals with mental
illnesses. Regrettably, the media constantly portrays persons with mental illness as violent,
murderous, impulsive and have themselves to blame for their mental condition. This has created
the perception in the general populace that individuals with mental disease are unmanageable
and dangerous and must be avoided beside feared. The consequences of mass media images
include harm of self-esteem, help-seeking behaviours, medication observance, along with
general recovery (Stuart, 2006).
Registered nurses have been found to play a significant function in educating family
members, caregivers and the community on how to help persons with mental illnesses lives
positively in the society. The nurses usually gives hopes to the family members, and the
community through different educational programs by motivating them and providing
counselling on how to promote care of persons with mental disorders (Wynaden, 2007).

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Effects of Negative Portrayal of Mass Media on Persons with Mental Illness
Researches have demonstrated that individuals diagnosed with mental disease are also
readers in addition to viewers of the media images; they are dishonoured and embarrassed by
these media messages and images that portray them negatively. These individuals are aware that
they are portrayed negatively and this damages their self-esteem, confidence and affects
adherence to treatment, and overall recovery. The following are the negative impacts of media on
portrayal of persons with mental illness:
Stigma
Persons with mental illness will feel stigmatized by the images they see in the media that
portray them negatively. The stigma created by the mass media influences the lives of
individuals with mental problems by making them feel stigmatized by the negative images and
messages portrayed through the mass media, especially through television entertainment shows
and comedy (Corrigan, Powell & Michaels, 2013). Stigma because of the negative media
portrayal impede recovery, enhances discrimination along with unfairness and fashions barriers
to seeking plus getting civilized housing, job plus education. Thus, the absence of safe,
reasonable, and obtainable housing results in homelessness, thus adding to the challenge of
mental disease, and growing the test of everyday endurance for persons diagnosed with mental
illness. Individuals with serious mental health disease can have trouble over their life span
securing sufficient education along with employment because of the barriers, like stigma and
discrimination by the media. Consequently, these barriers affect the individual’s capacity to have
sufficient income and these individuals will drift into poverty that will worsen their situations
because they feel that they have been rejected by the society. The rejection because of the stigma

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is believed to be created by the media biased reporting and the negative attitudes they associate
to the persons living with mental disorders (Stuart, 2006).
Self-Esteem
Potential studies have shown that low self-esteem is a threat cause for developing mental
challenges while encouraging self-worth is a protecting element against developing mental
health challenges. Thus, cognitive in addition to psychoanalytic theories point out that early life
experiences fashion beliefs regarding self worth, which function as susceptibility factors that
interrelate with consequent negative encounters in life to commence, as well as sustain
depression (Ziegler-Hill, 2011). Individuals that have mental illness will develop low self-esteem
when portrayed negatively by the media. The negative impacts of the media on persons with
mental illness have been found to increase depression among these people resulting in more
depression and low self-esteem. Among the persons with mental health problems, low self-
esteem makes individual to many other disorders and social problems. These problems comprise
anxiety, substance abuse, violence, high-risk behaviours, as well as borderline personality
disorders (Boden, Fergusson & Horwood, 2008). In addition, these individuals will have low
confidence because of the recurrent negative portrayal by the media by exaggerating their mental
situations that result in feelings of hopelessness, suicidal attempts, and suicidal tendencies.
Medication Adherence
Individuals with mental health problems that have been portrayed by the media
negatively will not adhere strictly to treatment and care. These people will become hopeless and
will see no need to adhere to the treatment plan and care that will deteriorate their health further.
People with mental illness will consider that the society does not value their existence and will

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not adhere to care and treatment because they will become repulsive through their behaviours
(Stuart, 2006).
The failure to adhere to the treatment plans and care will further aggravate their mental
situations and it will become worse. This is evident in the role the media plays in portraying
persons with mental problems as uncontrollable and always violent. In fact, the majority of these
individuals will develop violent behaviours that are hard to control, which will disrupt the care
and treatments that they are undertaking. Studies have established many mental ill persons that
perceive that the media negatively portrays will stop their adherence to medication by adopting
violent behaviours and even resorting to go to streets where administering care will be a problem
in the long-term (Coverdale, Nairn & Claasen, 2002).
Help-Seeking Behaviours
The negative portrayal of the persons diagnosed with mental illness by the media has
been found to develop negative help seeking behaviours. Although there is a proof that media
reporting of mental infirmity in Australia has improved in the recent years, the news media carry
on to depict mental disease in a manner that promote stigma along with continues myths
concerning mental disease. This is probably to have a negative impact on help-seeking
behaviours (Murphy, Fatoye & Wibberley, 2012). The media has created negative images and
messages concerning mentally ill persons that make these individuals to develop negative help-
seeking behaviours. The negative portrayal has been seen to influence the behaviour of the
persons who have mental problems since they will no longer seek help from others because they
feel stigmatized and discriminated in the society. The negative portrayal by the media would
probably increase stigma and these individuals who are mentally ill will feel rejected and they

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will have no confidence to develop positive help-seeking behaviours (Rickwood & Thomas,
2012).
Role of Nurses Education on Families, Caregivers and Community on Helping Mental Ill
Persons
Nurses have diverse roles founded on the patient and his family needs; they can perform
many roles concurrently. Nurses have educational, care giving and supporting roles in coping
process of family, caregivers and community with persons with mental problems. Registered
nurses play a principal role in providing education to families, caregivers and the community on
helping persons with mental illness recover and have hope in life (Zegwaard, Aartsen,
Grypdonck & Cuijpers, 2015). Nurses ensure that they tailor education programs to empower the
families and community on approaches to improve care towards assisting persons with mental
illness. Studies have shown that families, caregivers and the community need to be empowered
through information to effectively assist people with mental illness to live comfortably by
providing appropriate care. Therefore, nurses provide this information through well-developed
family and community education programs that ensures that optimal care is provided to the
patients with mental disorders (Hsiao & Riper, 2015).
Nurses have been trained to empower the family, caregiver, and community to accept
care and provide the needed care safety to the mentally ill patient. They train the family to ensure
that they always adhere to the care to the patient and ensure that they give hope to the person to
the recovery process. The information provide by the nurses will function to reduce complication
of providing the required care and this will allow the family and caregivers to administer care in

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the best way by adhering to the education program provided to them. Thus, educating the family,
caregivers, and community members is reflected as one of the nurses’ primary roles in provision
of mental healthcare services to patients. Furthermore, nurses will play a leading role in
educating the family members and caregivers on how best to develop and select the right care
program for the mental ill patient. Nurses will provide education on how to provide care and how
to handle diverse situations that will greatly assist family and caregivers during the care period
(Peyrovi, Nouhi & Kazemi, 2017).
Additionally, nurses will play a critical role in assessing training needs, offering
information and involving families, and caregivers in discharge programs and decisions
concerned with patients to enhance their self-esteem and readiness of accepting care. The nurses
through the educational programs will be able to transfer care skills to the family caregivers that
will ensure that they provide the appropriate care to the patient resulting in better care and
inspiring hope to this person with the mental problems. The training given t o caregivers, the
family and the community will be instrumental in promoting self-esteem and readiness so that
they may experience less difficulty and feel more confident (Sjöblom, Pejlert & Asplund, 2005).
Implications
The study will be valuable in equipping the family, caregivers, and the community on
better ways of optimizing care for mentally ill persons through effective educational programs.
The study will allow the nurses to better develop effective educational programs that will help
mentally ill persons to live a life of hope. In addition, the study will be valuable to the media in
ensuring that they portray the mentally ill persons positively through entertainment programs and

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movies on television. This will be instrumental in promoting better recovery of these persons
(Caputo &Rouner, 2011).
Conclusions
Media shapes ideas and understanding of different issues and vents. There often many
negative and imprecise portrayals of mental health matters in general and individuals with
mental illness in specific, strengthen beliefs along with myths regarding mental illness. Despite
the positive influence that the mass media have on influencing behaviours, it has been found that
media have continued to portray persons with mental illness negatively in the society. This has
resulted in negative impacts on these individuals that include of self-esteem, help-seeking
behaviours, treatment observance, as well as overall recovery. Thus, the media must become
responsible and promote objective reporting on news on persons with mental illness. Nursing
have been known as a caring profession and nurses must take care of patients, their families and
caregivers by providing relevant and sufficient information that will better promote the health of
the patient with mental illness.

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