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Society's view towards mental health tends to be the stereotypical 'nutcase' view. This leads to discrimination and a lot of stigma towards anyone who has or has had a mental health condition. This causes great problems for those people, in areas such as employment, socialising and money matters.

Attitudes

People’s attitudes tend to be shaped around what they know. When it comes to mental health that means the films they have seen, and more importantly the media coverage - it only tends to be violent or people with very serious mental health conditions that are reported about, so this is what the general public come to believe that all people with a condition are like.

They also tend to see mental health as something that 'could never happen to me', which, as this website has attempted to explain, is not the case - mental health problems can happen to anyone, no matter what their age, sex, race or background - 1 in 4 people will have a serious mental health condition during their life time, and 1 in 10 teenagers will be affected.

It is also important to recognise the fact that the majority people with mental health problems do not need hospitalisation, as many people believe, and many do not even seek help for their problems. People who suffer from anxiety, are afraid to go on buses or in crowded places all have mental health conditions, but often these will go unnoticed and undiagnosed.

Employment

In a recent survey 74% of people experiencing mental health problems said they wouldn't write it on a job application form. This is for one clear reason - people with mental health problems have the highest rate of unemployment amongst disabled people in the UK. So often people who have written a mental health problem on an application have said that they have applied for jobs for which they easily meet the criteria, but are not invited for interviews, or are offered a much lower job than the one they applied for.

Workplace discrimination is illegal on any grounds, including mental health, but it is often very hard to prove that the reason for not getting an interview or job offer is due to a condition, so it is hard for affected people to take action.

Money matters

Often not only can people affected by mental health problems not get jobs, or have to do low paid ones, but they are also regularly turned down for mortgages or insurance, or get charged higher premiums than someone else of a similar 'risk' group.

It has been made illegal, as of 1996, to refuse someone insurance unless the company can prove that people with mental health problems statistically pose a higher risk than people without.

The media

As mentioned before, the media tends to be what shapes peoples' views about mental health. Many more negative stories are published, e.g. people who hurt someone or cause a scene in a public place. Rarely are the stories of people who have overcome their problems and gone on to achieve great things after a serious mental health problem reported on, yet there are far more of the second type than the first.

There have been surveys that show that as many as half of the stories published on mental health issues link them to crime and violence.

It is hardly a surprise then that so many people know so little about what mental health problems really are, and how they can really affect people. Only by letting these people know the other side of the story can the stigma and discrimination finally stop.

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