Today's front page of 'The Sun' widely criticised
A front page story by The Sun newspaper today has been widely criticised for stigmatising mental health.
The Sun headline reading ‘1,200 killed by mental patients: Shock 10 year toll exposes care crisis’ has been the subject of a storm of criticisms from charities and MPs.
In a joint statement from Time to Change, Mind and Rethink Mental Illness they wrote: “It's incredibly disappointing to see a leading newspaper splash with such a sensational and damaging headline.
“The figures used are disputable: in the article itself, it's acknowledged that the numbers of homicides by people with mental illness has actually stayed the same for decades. In fact some studies suggest that the numbers have gone down in recent years.
“There are 1.2 million people using secondary mental health services - the vast majority of whom pose no threat to anyone. And in reality, people with mental health problems are more likely to be victims of crime than the general population.”
The piece also failed to cover that the likelihood of someone with mental health problems harming themselves is far higher than average. Much of this can arguably be attributed to social stigmas surrounding mental health problems.
Stephen Abell, The Sun’s managing editor defended the article, tweeting: "But read full copy: call for better communication between agencies; piece by m-health charity; story on ill as victims?"
The full article, which is behind a pay wall, argues that the ‘patients’ had been let down by the system detailing falls in care provision.
Sue Barker director of Time to Change, tweeting in reply wrote: “it is the front page headline that will fuel stigma. Appreciate the inclusion of Mind comment but outweighed”
There has also been a great deal of discussion over the validity of the figures quoted by The Sun, much of which appears to come from a report by the University of Manchester.
Professor Louis Appleby, an author of the report has claimed that The Sun had misquoted the report. He also clarified that the number of homicides by Schizophrenics has been falling since 2005.
Prof. Appleby also wrote that a number of contributing factors such as substance abuse had not been recorded by the paper.
The National Confidential Inquiry into Suicide and Homicide by People with Mental Illness Annual Report July 2013 states that there were 738 victims of homicide from mental health patients not the 1,217 figure quoted by the Sun.
The figure quoted by The Sun is from victims of both mental health patients and people with mental health illnesses and not just ‘high-risk patients’ as claimed by The Sun.
