An interesting comment on The Guardian’s #Bedlam review. #MentalHealth

I was particularly drawn to this reader comment:  Lynnh61 02 November 2013 10:51am   Recommended 7   “Without wishing to take anything away from the courage of the participants for allowing the cameras to record their experiences I really felt the programme was otherwise disappointing as it seems again to go no further than provide another reductionist view of mental health focusing largely on symptoms and treatments providing viewers with a similar viewpoint to that of the Victorians visited the old asylums. This seems especially true when compared with this week’s BBC 4 series, Disowned and Disabled, where, in the second episode, Breaking Free, the documentary charts the history of the disability movement (excluding mental health, sadly) through the experiences of the disabled people who shaped it. Whereas, Bedlam, seems to bare more similarity to the voyeuristic 1950s clips featured in Breaking Free. This seems to highlight how successful the disability movement has been in advocating for social justice and the social model of disability, whereas, not surprisingly as levels of stigma and discrimination remain high, the media, in particular, still seems to view people with mental health diagnoses as deserving little more attention than to occasionally feature in a documentary like this where people’s voices are heard but their experiences are framed very much within the context of psychiatry. For example, I would very much like to have heard...
Source: Dawn Willis sharing the News and Views of the Mentally Wealthy - Category: Mental Illness Authors: Tags: Mental Health, The News & Policies. anxiety bedlam disability movement discrimination OCD stigma The Guardian Source Type: blogs