Mental Health Interventions: Reflections on a Radio Program as Alternative for Stigma Reduction and Social Integration

Abstract

Under the umbrella of Social Identity Theory and Goffman's notion of stigma, this paper reviews research on stigma in connection with social perceptions of individuals with mental health problems and the role of the media in building those perceptions. The study specifically examined three aspects: (1) social stigma of individuals with mental health problems; (2) media as an alternative intervention for individuals with mental health problems, and (3) alternative interventions for stigma reduction and social integration. Based on data collected via testimonies from an in-hospital radio show, from hospitalized patients with mental health problems, and from the audience, the study was designed to address the question of how mass media could act as an alternative mental health intervention to help reduce stigma and promote social integration.

Visibilidad y percepciones de la salud mental entre universitarios, acceso a los servicios de salud y comunicación universitaria durante la pandemia del Covid-19.

“…De esta manera, una comunicación interna estructurada de acuerdo con esta lógica puede ofrecer una alternativa a las problemáticas ligadas a la salud mental de los estudiantes ya que este enfoque facilita el desarrollo del sentimiento de pertenencia y de identificación de los participantes al proceso comunicacional e informacional y legitima los espacios y territorios deliberativos dentro de las organizaciones. justamente, esta manera alternativa de pensar la comunicación se puede observar en ciertas prácticas radiofónicas de tipo disruptivas como por ejemplo el caso de La Colifata (Tilli, 2015) y de Les Hauts Parleurs (Marino, Adogba & Tilli, 2020). La comunicación interna es aquí entendida como un proceso por el cual los participantes co-construyen (Miège, 2004, p. 103) y co-desconstruyen la realidad creando y compartiendo de esta manera la información necesaria para que se pueda llegar a un entendimiento mutuo y como consecuencia se pueda operar un impacto en las representaciones subjetivas individuales y colectivas.…”

… And is there no new thing under the sun? Retrospective study on the presence of stigmatizing articles in two Italian newspapers during the period 2006–2021.

“…In the context of mental health, Klin and Lemish (2008) and Pescosolido et al (2019) highlighted how the media perpetuate misconceptions and stigma related to mental disorders, underscoring the influential role of media representations in shaping public attitudes. Furthermore, other studies (Alyousef et al, 2020;Marino et al, 2020) have explored the potential of media interventions for reducing mental health stigma and the perceptions of media's contribution toward stigmatization of mental health, respectively. Among all forms of media, newspapers play a distinctive role because they can be considered an index of wider public opinion (Aoki et al, 2016;Pingani et al, 2018) and a privileged source of information on mental health (Whitley & Wang, 2017).…”