How we CHAMPIONED mental health BEFORE it became TRENDY

As we face a new, more hidden, pandemic of Covid-related stress, our resident psychiatrist says...

THESE days, it seems not a week goes by without mental health being in the news. But it wasn’t always so. As well as being an nHs psychiatrist, I’ve worked in journalism for more than 20 years and I remember a time, not so long ago, when few editors would consider printing stories about mental illness. It was taboo, seen as something shameful and frightening. It certainly wasn’t something people wanted to read about, at least that was the belief of many in the media.

It often felt like an uphill struggle to get serious, sensitive and thoughtful pieces about mental health into the Press. even worse, when it was featured, it was sensationalist, perpetuating the myth that those with mental illness were tragic or scary.

one exception to all this has been Good Health. It has never shied away from talking about mental health, and it did this long before it was trendy, a cause célèbre of royals, actors and pop singers. It has stood out from the crowd because it consistently and unfailingly featured mental illness, not as something strange or fearful, but in calm, thoughtful and informative terms.

Practically everyone was — and still is — directly or indirectly affected by mental illness, and many were ravenous for accurate, well-researched articles. Good Health didn’t disappoint. I’ve been looking over the archive (I was a schoolboy when it launched!) and it’s astonishing to see the breadth of topics it’s covered.

Good Health has reported on new and emerging science, along with debates among academics, often long before the medical establishment caught up, let alone the general media.

nearly ten years ago it was discussing binge-eating disorder, for example, a condition characterised by extreme binges where the person feels utterly out of control with their eating during an episode.

HAVING worked in an eating disorder unit and seen hundreds of patients with this condition, I can assure you that many doctors still don’t fully understand it, and many patients are fobbed off by GPs still ignorant of the condition and the devastating impact it can have.

But while Good Health discussed it and gave a platform to experts in the field nearly a decade ago, binge-eating disorder was only finally put in the official diagnostic manual used by doctors two years ago.

What’s important is that these articles always point to where readers can get more information or support.

And while coverage of mental health in the UK Press tends to focus on depression and anxiety, as these conditions are common, Good Health has always looked beyond this, shining a light on areas others were overlooking.

For many years I’ve been a judge on the Mind media awards, and something my fellow judges and I have often lamented is how topics such as personality disorders are completely ignored.

But not only has Good Health discussed this, it’s run an entire series on it. there really isn’t an area that is offlimits or that hasn’t been covered in this award-winning section.

one of its particular strengths is how it carefully uses case studies to explore an issue. this has untold benefits, helping humanise the conditions. research shows this is the single biggest way to tackle stigma and in this way, Good Health has probably done more to address the stigma of mental illness than any other publication I’ve come across. It can also take credit for major policy changes when it comes to mental health, with fearless campaigning on topics that other parts of the media shied away from, for instance, withdrawal from antidepressant medication. Good Health started looking at this years before the medical establishment would even acknowledge this was possible. Its epic campaign, which also covered addiction to other medication prescribed by doctors, including sleeping pills, led to those in power finally starting to listen and to change official policy and guidelines. the daily Mail single-handedly achieved this. It’s dogged determination to give a voice to patients, to challenge orthodoxy and speak truth to power has meant Good Health has not always been popular among some in the medical establishment who would often see these pages as a thorn in their side.

they would roll their eyes at people bringing in cuttings to ask about something they’d read or a new treatment. Yet others realised it was empowering, and educating patients was a good thing — that Good Health made medicine more accessible and less scary. It helped people have a more collaborative relationship with their doctor.

there can be no more important area of medicine for this to happen than in mental health, where the rights of those affected are easily overlooked and ignored. Good Health has been their tireless champion, standing up for them and insisting their voices are heard.