Media Promotion Of Mental Health

Introduction:
The stigma attached to mental illness is the greater barrier for people suffering from it to seek assistance. Therefore, awareness needs to be raised for communities to have a better understanding because often people who are diagnosed with mental health illness experience severe impairment in their occupation and social live (McNally, 2011). However, there are some programs and events that are designed to raise mental health awareness in different societies across the globe. For example in this paper the main focus is about the Mental Health Week which is a national event held every October to coincide with World Mental Health Day on the 10th of October.
An overview of the initiative, why it is necessary and what it hopes to
The first one is media promoter, this when media is used to promote existing programs. It is usually associated with encouragements to the audience to call, participate or with in the program. The second one is media educator, this when media is used to covey educational information to the audience for a particular health concern or disease (Floral, n.d). However, all the information is delivered to the audiences in different ways. There is mass media which include radio, television, newspapers and magazines. The impact of this media is that the promotion reaches a very large audience which helps raise awareness in nearly every individuals and community on how to foster environments which are safe and supportive and which offer accessible and appropriate opportunities for participation in community life (Mindframe, n.d.). However on the other hand, media tends to portray mental health illness negatively through promoting stereotype and negative images. Often print media perpetuates the myths and misunderstandings associated with mental illness. For example, A study of newspaper items on mental illness in a New Zealand newspaper in 1997 found that mental illness was portrayed negatively and that people with a mental illness were portrayed as a danger and a threat to the community. Since for most people media is their primary source of mental health illness information, it means media has a great impact on their perception on mental illness. If negative information keeps entering their ears, it means stigma and discrimination will not be reduced (Hunter Institute of Mental Health, 2014). Also negative information impact significantly on people experiencing mental illness and may reduce appropriate help-seeking behaviour, resulting in untreated illness and possibly contributing to suicidal thinking and