The other day, a fellow advocate was venting to me about all the great programs his organization is doing, WITH big name celebrities in the arts and music industries, with a whole PR engine behind them getting the stories to right media folks, and how none of it was getting any ink.
Days after we tragically lost Kate spade, I read a stat that said the terms “Kate Spade” and “colored scarf” (as in how was she found/what kind was used), were the two most common terms published together over a 24hr span in any article that also involved the term “suicide.”
We get it – the media chooses to cover celebrities because of the eyeballs they receive. But why is it that the ONLY thing covered en mass, by our media related to MH, are the gory details when it comes to loss, and the same stigmatizing terms related to: disorder names, coupled with celeb names, coupled with controversy.
The media takes a lot of heat for their biased political coverage, as they should, bc regardless of who you support, our media has turned news into a soap opera. But when it comes to MH, their utter lack of interest in covering:
Solutions
Programs
Treatment and Rehab Options
The symptoms ppl should look out for that are similar to these very SAME celebrities
…is flat out disgusting.
It’s that much more important that advocates and every day people keep talking about this. I don’t know if it’s big pharm paying the bills for most of these media outlets that prevents them from covering what’s needed, or the editors only wanting gory details, but with the trends the way they are and the lives being lost, it’s time the media took responsibility and did something right for society/humanity, instead of their bottom line.
(Side note, and only half joking here, if I end up in a ditch after posting something like this, now or in the coming months, please know who/what industries were likely behind it),
