media

Don’t ask me why I’m doing this. An absence of anything to bash on about I guess. So I thought I’d peruse the global news stands and link the interesting stuff back here. I’m such a martyr for the cause, I know.

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Following on from the news that people with mental health problems are now less likely to kill themselves, it now transpires that they’re also less likely to kill other people too

The Guardian’s Bad Science columnist Ben Goldacre picks up the story, and makes some interesting observations on the attitudes of the media to mental illness and violence.
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Aye aye, check shirt man’s back, still with his hand surgically grafted onto his head, still staring out of the window at the black night sky for the answers to it all. However, this time, he’s appearing next to a good news story about a drop in the number of deaths from suicide.

The report shows a 7.5% drop in suicides among young men aged 20-34 between 2003-05 and 2004-06.

There were 145 suicides among mental health in-patients in 2005 compared with 157 in 2004.

The number of suicides among people in contact with mental health services also dropped, from 1,308 in 2004 to 1,277 in 2005.

Suicide rates in prison have risen, but the general thrust of the report is positive. Well done to all those whose hard work has contributed to saving these lives.

Kevin Myers, writing in the Irish Independent [1] [2] [3], has been threatened with prosecution for arguing that aid to Africa is doing more harm than good. He highlights the case of Ethiopia where he was a reporter during the famine of 1984 – 1985:

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I’ve just received a complimentary copy of the first issue of One in Four magazine, which describes itself as an “aspirational lifestyle magazine for people with mental health difficulties”. There’s a review of our website in there.

They’ve given us a very positive review, praising the “wide range of ideas and approaches” discussed, and the fact that “professionals can have very different views from each other, as can those who experience mental health difficulties themselves.”

That’s certainly true. Can I say how much I regularly look forward to the Weekly Oldschoolbaby/Beakie Argument?

Anyway, since One in Four have been so nice about us, I think I should give a review of their magazine in return. So here it is:
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As we’ve commented upon before, the BBC News website regularly use the same photo to illustrate mental health issues. Every time, it’s the same guy in the check shirt.

Today, Check Shirt Man is back again.

Mental Nurse would like to wish our best regards to Check Shirt Man, and express our hope that one day he may finally succeed in unglueing his hand from his forehead.

Since emo has become something of a running topic on this blog, I note that today the emos have struck back at the Daily Mail, staging a protest outside their offices to register their objection to the Daily Heil’s utterly ridiculous “killer cult of emo” hysteria.

I’d like to take this opportunity to applaud the kids who did this. Well done for standing up for yourselves, and being willing to take the Mail to task over their scaremongering.

Now go and listen to some Nine Inch Nails, some Black Sabbath and some Generation Terrorists/Holy Bible-era Manic Street Preachers, you bunch of limp-wristed, middle class pantywaists.

Here in our CAMHS clinic, I’ve been having to explain to my colleagues about the differences between chavs, moshers, emos and goths. I’m fairly young (well, early 30s) so they look to me as the expert on what the hip kids are boogieing on down to in groovetown.

Of course, I’m always up for increasing my knowledge base, so I thank Mental Patient About Town for pointing out that the Daily Mail has put its finger on the pulse of emo, and has worked it all out.
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Yesterday I drew attention to this news report.

Eight out of 10 nurses say they have left work distressed because they have been unable to treat patients with the dignity they deserve, a poll suggests.

Today, a different poll of nurses revealed another concern.

A poll of 1,752 nurses found that a fifth of the time of a standard nurse is spent doing non-essential paperwork.

Hmm, could these two issues be somehow…related? I stroke my imaginary beard.
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This report from the BBC today.

Eight out of 10 nurses say they have left work distressed because they have been unable to treat patients with the dignity they deserve, a poll suggests.

The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) poll of more than 2,000 UK nurses cited washing and privacy as key issues.

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Mental health and violence has long been given an erroneously represented causal link. Indeed, it has long been the promulgation of sensationalist reporting of ‘mental patient does harm’ that has sustained this misconception. For some time there has been a post on Mr Man’s Wife’s blog on just this topic.

I decided to bring some of the thinking over to here and add to previous discussions on the topic.

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I was asked the question recently as to what i thought about the idea of the label ’schizophrenia’ being abolished. There is no getting away from the fact that the label ’schizophrenia’ inherently carries a poor image and stigma. This has ultimately been brought about through the negative and unbalanced portrayal of ’schizophrenics’ in the media. The image that they are all unstable murderers and attackers.

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Thanks to News From Unscheduled Care for pointing out this news story.

Almost one in 10 nurses think starting a relationship with one of their patients is acceptable while one in six said they knew of a colleague who had a sexual relationship with a patient they were looking after.

The findings, published by the Nursing Times, will add weight to the controversial remarks by Conservative peer Lord Mancroft that nurses are “promiscuous” and “unprofessional”.

Almost one in 10 nursees think it’s okay to sleep with your patient? Of course, another way of putting this is that over 90% think it’s not acceptable. Still, all this talk of promiscuity and torrid affairs is leaving me with one burning question.

WHICH ONE OF YOU BASTARDS IS GETTING MY SHARE?????????

As those of you who have been following the news will know, there’s been a spate of suicides in Bridgend, South Wales. 17 young people have committed suicide, all by hanging. Nearly all of them were not known to mental health services prior to killing themselves. The media seems to be blaming the internet. The local politicians are blaming the media.

So who’s to blame, Bebo or the Daily Express? I’ve been exchanging a few e-mails with CAMHS clinicians in South Wales, and I’ve received a couple of interesting stories.

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Student nurse The Oracle has pointed out some charming comments from the Daily Mail website.

Nurses in this country are the most rude, militant, chip of the shoulder bunch of wingers you could ever need. The problem is now they are required to do a useless degree instead of learning their primary function which is to care for patients on the wards. They now see themselves as an equal to the doctor and a lot of the time think they know better that the doctor does. And as for the degree(as it was suggested) being mainly academic? Come on. It’s as academic as a media studies degree, in other words a non degree that waters down the term ‘degree’. Why would anyone with any academic ability choose to do a nursing degree over a medical degree or choose to be a nurse rather than a doctor?

A nursing degree is a “a non degree that waters down the term ‘degree’.”? (and breathe, and relax, and think of bunny rabbits and unicorns…AND SMASHING THEIR LITTLE HEADS IN WITH A HAMMER!!!!)

I mention this chap’s opinion because, funnily enough, I was formally awarded my nursing degree…yesterday. This may seem surprising to those of you who know that I actually qualified as a nurse last September. Why this confusing state of affairs? Let me explain…
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