Mental Health is not a motive. Psychosis is not an explanation for violence
SANE Australia
Mental health diagnosis is not a motive. Psychosis is not an explanation for violence
SANE is urging media, commentators and the broader community to exercise care in the language used when discussing mental illness in the wake of the alleged attack on Helen Haines.
SANE, the national organisation for people impacted by complex mental health, says it is seeing an increase in the number of reports and calls around the negative language and portrayal of people with complex mental health conditions.
Legitimate questions about violence, community safety and gaps in mental health care must be investigated. But those conversations should not come at the expense of people living with schizophrenia, psychosis and other complex mental health conditions.
SANE CEO Rachel Green said that when shocking incidents occur, the understandable search for answers can quickly turn to conversations about mental illness.
“What happened to Helen Haines is horrific, and Australians understandably want to understand why it happened. But a mental health diagnosis is not a motive. Psychosis is not an explanation for violence. Human behaviour is complex, and we need to be extremely careful about drawing a straight line between a diagnosis and an individual act.”
Green said that when media and commentators label people as psychotic or blame violent acts on psychosis without contexts or legal fact it has long-lasting impacts for those living with complex mental health conditions.
“One headline, one label or one piece of commentary can reinforce stereotypes that people with lived experience, their families and advocates have spent decades trying to change.”
Recent SANE research with the National Mental Health Commission and the University of Melbourne found people living with conditions like long-term schizophrenia were more likely to be perceived as dangerous, less reliable and less able to be loved.
“That tells us just how deeply these attitudes remain embedded. We have made enormous progress in the way Australians talk about anxiety, depression and wellbeing, but schizophrenia and psychosis are still too often discussed through a lens of fear.
“Language matters because stigma has real world consequences. It can influence whether someone seeks treatment, gets a job, finds a home, maintains relationships or feels accepted in their community. Critically, it can also affect whether someone feels safe enough to seek help when symptoms first emerge.”
SANE Peer Ambassador Sandy Jeffs, who lives with schizophrenia, said the impact of the recent language being used around mental health was distressing.
“Imagine living with schizophrenia and repeatedly seeing people with the same diagnosis portrayed primarily through a lens of violence and danger. Imagine being newly diagnosed, already frightened and trying to understand what is happening, and hearing the community talk about people like you as though you should be feared,” Jeffs said.
“Schizophrenia is part of my life, but it does not define who I am. People living with schizophrenia are writers, parents, friends, colleagues, artists and members of communities. We are people, not stereotypes or scary headlines,” she said.
SANE said scrutiny of gaps in treatment, housing, early intervention and ongoing community support ws legitimate and necessary. Where systems fail people experiencing severe mental illness, those failures should be examined openly.
But Green said these conversations require nuance.
“We absolutely should ask whether people experiencing severe mental illness are getting the treatment, housing and ongoing support they need, and where there are failures, governments and services need to confront them.”
“But we can have that conversation without reducing tens of thousands of Australians living with schizophrenia or psychosis to a stereotype.”
“Real progress on mental health stigma isn't measured by how we talk about mental illness only when it feels mild or comfortable,” Green said.
“It's measured by how we respond when something frightening happens. We can condemn violence, demand answers and examine failures in our mental health system without stigmatising an entire community in the process, and people and families facing complex mental illness should not be used as a political football to call out under resourcing in health and social services.”
For support, please go to www.sane.org/get-supprt.
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Contact details:
- Interviews are available with Rachel Green, and people with lived experience of complex mental health issues. For media interviews, please contact Kelly Curtain on 0412 339 690.