Published: 29/09/2005, Volume II5, No. 5975 Page 21
Dr Ian McPherson, director, care services improvement partnership, National Institute for Mental Health in England, West Midlands It was disappointing that the normally funny and often disturbingly perceptive Your Humble Servant twice resorted to jocular references to people sectioned under the Mental Health Act (End Game, inside back cover, 8 September). Disappointing, but not surprising. In the public sector we have slowly learned that stereotypical remarks about race, gender, sexuality and physical disability are not acceptable - but joking about mental health problems is still commonplace.
If you are not sure about what is acceptable, a simple rule of thumb is to ask yourself, if you substituted reference to a person with a physical disability (eg spastic or cripple for psycho or nutter) would you still feel ok about making the comment?
This is not political correctness, but recognition that every time we make pejorative comments about people's mental health we reinforce the largest remaining health-related stigma. We also add to the sense of discrimination experienced by the one in four of us who will have a significant mental health problem at some time in our lives. Perhaps if we started to think of people with mental health problems as 'us', not 'them', we might find this easier to remember.
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