Mental health professionals and media professionals: a survey of attitudes towards one another

Background: The general public regard mass media as their main source of information about mental illness. Psychiatrists are reluctant to engage with the media. There is little understanding of why this is the case. Aims: The paper looks to explore attitudes of mental health clinicians and the media towards one another. Method: Media and mental health clinicians in the southwest of England completed self-report surveys. Results: Of 119 questionnaires returned 85 were mental health clinicians and 34 media professionals. Both groups agreed that stigma is a major issue and clinicians have a key role influencing media portrayal of mental illness. The media view their reporting to be more balanced than clinicians and lack awareness of clinician mistrust towards them. Those clinicians with media training (13%) felt significantly more comfortable talking to media and significantly less mistrustful of them. Clinicians who had experience of working with media felt more comfortable doing media work. Only 15% of media professionals had received mental health awareness training. Conclusions: Media training and experience are associated with an increased willingness of mental health professionals to engage with the media. Reciprocal awareness training between media and mental health professionals may be a simple intervention worth pursuing.