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WELL? WHAT DO YOU THINK?
CHAPTER SIX. WHERE DO PEOPLE GET THEIR INFORMATION ON MENTAL HEALTH ISSUES?
6.1 Various questions were asked to establish the ways in which people in the sample acquired information about mental health issues. First, people were asked which sources of information had been important to them in the past. Television news and current affairs was a major source, followed by personal contact/experience, national newspapers and health professionals.
Most important sources of information about mental health issues
Figure 6.1: Regardless of your own circumstances, I'm interested to know how you get your information about mental health and mental health problems. Which of the following have been important sources of information to you in the past?
Base: all = 1381. (NB - multiple answers allowed)
6.2 For those people who mentioned more than one source of information, the question was followed up with a request to pick the most important source. From both questions, the analysis arrived at a list of the single most important source of information for all respondents. The primary methods of gaining information were personal contact or personal experience (21%), television news and current affairs programmes (18%), health professionals (17%), national newspapers (8%) and work (7%). No other information source was mentioned by more than 5% of respondents.
6.3 Certain sources of information stood out above others for particular groups of respondents. Young women were more likely than other sex/age groups to regard education or studying as the most important source of information, while older male respondents were more likely than people in other age groups to see national newspapers as the most important source. Those who were working were more likely than non-workers to get their information from personal contact, whereas those with large amounts of stress were more likely to have received it from health professionals, compared to other sample groups. Those people who had experience of mental health problems were more likely, generally, to receive any information than those who had no experience.
Awareness of advertising promotion about mental health
6.4 More than 40% of people in the sample said that they had seen, read about or heard an advert or promotion about mental health/mental health problems in the last six months. Those people with some experience of mental health problems were more likely than others to have been aware of this type of activity, as were those respondents who claimed at least some control over factors impacting on mental health and well being. Older respondents were significantly less likely than younger people to be aware of any advertising or promotional activity.
Table 6.1: In the last
six months, have you seen, read about or heard an advert or promotion about mental health/mental health problems?
Base: all = 1381
| All
% | 35-54
% | 65+
% | Experience of someone else having mental health problems
% | Have had own mental health problems
% | No experience of people with mental health problems
% |
Yes, seen | 24 | 27 | 14 | 24 | 28 | 19 |
Yes, read about | 12 | 14 | 9 | 14 | 15 | 6 |
Yes, heard | 6 | 6 | 5 | 7 | 5 | 5 |
Yes but not sure | 7 | 8 | 6 | 9 | 5 | 7 |
Yes - any (summary) | 43 | 47 | 29 | 45 | 46 | 34 |
No, none of these | 55 | 53 | 70 | 53 | 52 | 63 |
Don't know | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 3 |
Media portrayal of people with mental health problems
6.5 Respondents were asked how they thought the media portrayed people with mental health problems. Few people thought that the media showed people with mental health problems in a uniformly positive or negative way. However, far more respondents felt that this group
tended to be shown in a negative light (44%) than thought the balance was more positive (15%). Many people said that both positive and negative slants could be observed quite equally.
6.6 Older respondents had a more positive (or perhaps a less negative) opinion of media portrayal of mental health problems than did the younger sample. Interestingly, there was little variation between opinions held by people in the four categories defined by the stigma scale (see Chapter Seven). However, it is worth noting that 13% of people in the highest category (who exhibited the least tolerant views) felt unable to answer the question. Only 11% of those who had experienced a mental health problem said they felt that, on balance, media portrayal of people with mental health problems was positive.
Table 6.2: Overall, how do you think the media, such as newspapers, television and radio, portray people with mental health problems?
Base: all = 1381
| All
% | 35-44
% | 65-74
% | Low stigma
% | High stigma
% | Have had own mental health problems
% |
Almost always positively (+2) | 4 | 2 | 8 | 3 | 7 | 2 |
More positively than negatively (+1) | 12 | 8 | 19 | 15 | 5 | 11 |
Both positively and negatively (0) | 35 | 37 | 28 | 32 | 32 | 37 |
More negatively than positively (-1) | 35 | 39 | 26 | 38 | 33 | 35 |
Almost always negatively (-2) | 9 | 11 | 9 | 8 | 10 | 10 |
All positive | 15 | 10 | 28 | 18 | 12 | 13 |
All negative | 44 | 50 | 34 | 46 | 43 | 45 |
Mean score | -0.4 | -0.5 | -0.1 | -0.3 | -0.4 | -0.4 |
Don't know | 6 | 4 | 10 | 4 | 13 | 5 |
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