We Must Speak Out!
The purpose of this section is to provide you with some tools to
help you promote fair, accurate, and balanced portrayals of
mental illness in the media. Your voice does make a difference.
Whether you handwrite it, type it, dictate it, or e-mail it,
it's your passion and knowledge that persuade, that get your
letters read (and published), and that change hearts and minds.
Seven Steps to Writing an Effective Letter of Complaint
1. Open with your purpose and express your feelings The purpose
of this letter is... o to let you know... o to suggest... o to
let you know... o to express my disappointment with... o to
protest... o to condemn...
2. Document the source of your complaint o your editorial... o
your article... o your television program... o your film...
...that appeared on (date) under the title of (name of the
editorial, article, program, or film)
3. Say who you are o As a reader, viewer/fan who has a
psychiatric disability... o As the family member of a wonderful
young woman who has a... o As the administrator of a program for
persons who...
4. Say what upset you and the harm it does I can tell you
that... o your joke made me cry from pain and anger... o your
headline made my blood boil... o you are misleading the public
about...
5. Add some information and psychiatric disabilities I can also
tell you that...
o negative stereotypes profoundly affect attitudes towards
persons with mental illness. A 1990 study found that two out of
three people surveyed get their information about mental illness
from the media -- not doctors or other professionals. You can
address any harm done by accurately reporting...
6. Say what you want done I implore you to stop...
o the slurs and jokes... o the sensational headlines... o the
exploitation... You can address any harm done by accurately
reporting...
7. Educate! I enclose... o educational material about... o
information about our program... o an article about...
Here are Some Examples of Actual Letters, Written by Real-Life
People Here is a Letter to a Newspaper Conerning an Offensive
Cartoon Regarding the cartoon on your editorial page yesterday,
the use of the words "paranoid schizophrenic" and the man in the
straitjacket are very offensive. Apparently the person who
authored this cartoon knows nothing about mental illness.
Paranoid schizophrenia is a very serious mental illness, and it
is nothing to make jokes about. The media is guilty of using
this term indiscriminately. One in four families is affected by
a mental illness. None of us has to look very far to know
someone who has been touched by this disease. I hope the people
who are guilty of using these terms will educate themselves.
Here is a Lettter to a Television Network about a Stigmatizing
Episode of a Situtation Comedy Show I am writing to express my
deep disappointment that your network plans to rebroadcast an
episode of the Drew Carey Show (August 20, 1997) that many of us
in the mental health and vocational rehabilitation community
find highly objectionable. This episode reinforces the
wide-spread perception that persons with mental illness are
dangerous, that employing people with a history of mental
illness or being friendly with people with a history of mental
illness is likely to end in violence, and that people with
mental illness are to be kept away from the rest of society as
much as possible. Having made the mistake twice now, the show
simply chooses to ignore the criticism, rebroadcasts the
offending episodes, and moves forward.
Here is a Letter to a Newspaper about an Offensive Obituary
Your Oct. 7 obituary of Margaret Mary Ray does a great
disservice to Ray and to the millions of other people with
mental illnesses. Focusing on Ray's unusual behaviors, it
encourages the public to think of those with mental illnesses
more as a bundle of frightening symptoms than as complex human
beings, like others, with back-ground and roots and even
accomplishments unrelated to her mental illness. In Ray's
obituary, readers learn of her stalking of David Letterman, her
imprisonment, and her institutionalization -- circumstances that
are appropriately reported as part of the history that brought
her to public attention. In contrast to the more traditional
obituaries, however -- such as the one just below hers -- no
information about other aspects of her life is given. The other
obituary tells of the deceased woman's occupation and education.
No information about education and occupation is provided for
Margaret Mary Ray. The other obituary names a home town and
tells a little about the woman's early life. No such information
is provided for Ray. Readers are told of survivors who will
mourn the other woman's passing. Ray's obituary ends only with a
retelling of a joke about her from the Letterman show.
Just because someone's mental illness has led her to jail,
hospitalization and finally suicide does not mean that she
should be treated as less fully human than others. Margaret Mary
Ray -- as all those who have psychiatric disorders -- deserves
recognition of a life and an identity beyond mental illness.
Here is a "General Purpose" Educational Letter to a Newspaper
In the past 2