The reader Cayetano Toledo, member of the SoyComotu Foundation, dedicated to the fight against stigma and social discrimination of people who suffer from a mental health problem, wrote to me a few weeks ago following a news article published in La Vanguardia in which pointed out that a man who attacked several women could have “diagnosed a mental illness.” Toledo warned that the assumption “is stigmatizing” because it leads to thinking that “people with mental health problems are violent and dangerous.” And he reflected: “It is human to try to explain the inexplicable or unknown of our behaviors, and sometimes mental health problems are used to do so. And with this we all feel calmer.”
The reader Natàlia Ballester also wrote to me for this same reason and did so again, days later, for another article, in which it was explained that a man who killed his wife and two children in Prat de Llobregat, and then thrown onto the train tracks, he had attempted suicide two months earlier. Ballester regretted that this detail, taken to the headline, led one to think “that the murderer killed them because he had mental health problems.”
Susana Quadrado, editor-in-chief of the Society section, considers it essential to make it clear that “mental disorder does not imply violence or criminality” and agrees that “you have to be very careful to avoid this type of associations.” Mayka Navarro, author of the information, also declares herself a firm defender of the importance of “doing pedagogy and making mental illnesses visible” without any type of stigma or prejudice. The journalist explains that on this occasion the family, judicial and work environment sources of the murderer with whom she spoke emphasized this fact and she considered that it was one of the few exceptions in which this information should be included.
The rule that is applied on countless occasions, Quadrado and Navarro explain, is not to publish information or details of this or any other personal nature if they are not relevant and, in addition, reinforce stigmas. To help eradicate them, the main task of the media is to address the challenges and facets of mental health, as is often done in the Society pages, with the appropriate importance and treatment in in-depth information and reports.
