Update on our Open Letter about BBC Coverage of Mental Health

On Sunday, February 21, 2016, we posted on this site an Open Letter about BBC Coverage of Mental Health. That letter attracted over 1,500 signatories (I'm still processing them, I'm afraid).

We sent that letter to Lord Tony Hall, BBC Director General, and I'm pleased to say we've now received a reply:

--------------------------------------------

Dear Professor Kinderman

Thank you for getting in touch and raising your concerns with us. I know you have now spoken to David Brown – producer of the In the Mind season – and I hope you were reassured by this conversation.

Best wishes

Tony Hall

--------------------------------------------

We've been considering our response, and we've decided to reply as follows:

--------------------------------------------

Dear Lord Hall,

Thank you for your note.

Several of us have spoken briefly with David Brown. However he informed us that he was only responsible for the news items and therefore could not comment on the documentaries. We continue to be very concerned by the issues outlined in our letter. We are somewhat surprised at your suggestion that we might have been happy to see this as the end of the matter.   

As you know, our expression of concern was originally drafted by a group of 19 authors, including senior members of all the major mental health professions as well as people with personal experience of the issues in question.  You will also be aware that over 1,500 people from a wide range of backgrounds  have asked to add their names to our letter, as have a number of groups, charities and professional organisations, some of them of key significance in the UK mental health field. We have, in addition, been contacted since by many others who would have signed the document had we not sent it in to you after just a week.

It is always good to have informal conversations with TV producers - we have, between us, quite a lot of broadcasting experience, and are used to such conversations.  But our letter addressed an issue of substantive concern, namely that some of the BBC coverage failed to acknowledge that mental health problems can often be an understandable response to the events and circumstances of people's lives and, instead, uncritically presented one narrow and contested view: namely, the idea that such problems are illnesses with their origin in the brain.

These issues matter because of their potential impact on service-users and their families. A number of us are practising clinicians who have witnessed the impact of some of the programmes in our work. Clients tell us again and again of the crucial importance for recovery of finding a way of understanding and naming their difficulties that makes sense to them personally in their particular context. Many found the diagnostic labelling and message of 'lifelong illness' insisted upon in the Stephen Fry programme deeply invalidating. The statement made in the programme that the 'disease' usually gets worse, with episodes ultimately occurring closer together, has led some to feel very hopeless; a few actively suicidal.  While this may be the experience of some people who struggle with extreme mood states, it is certainly not the experience of all. Indeed, many go on to make good recovery and are able to manage without, or limit their use of, medication.

The more than 1,500 signatories to our letter deserve, we believe, a formal, considered response to the concerns we expressed.

As a practical suggestion, we would welcome the opportunity to introduce senior BBC editors, directors, producers and writers to people - both professionals and experts by experience - who would be able to explain why these issues matter so much to people who have experienced the discrimination associated with mental health problems and who have had to fight to receive the kind of humane care that should be routine.

We look forward to hearing from you.

With best wishes, 

Peter Kinderman, Professor of Clinical Psychology, University of Liverpool & President-Elect, British Psychological Society

Jill Anderson, Co-ordinator, Mental Health In Higher Education Project

Richard Bentall, Professor of Clinical Psychology, University of Liverpool

Anne Cooke, Consultant Clinical Psychologist & Clinical Director, Doctoral Programme in Clinical Psychology, Canterbury Christ Church University

John Cromby, Reader in Psychology, University of Leicester

Angela Gilchrist, Consultant Clinical Psychologist and Senior Lecturer, Doctoral Programme in Clinical Psychology, Canterbury Christchurch University

Nicky Hayward, Mental Health Campaigner, Survivor and Blogger 

Sue Holttum, Senior Lecturer, Doctoral Programme in Clinical Psychology, Canterbury Christ Church University

Steven Jones, Professor of Clinical Psychology, University of Lancaster

Lucy Johnstone, Consultant Clinical Psychologist

Laura Lea, Coordinator of Service User and Carer Involvement, Doctoral Programme in Clinical Psychology, Canterbury Christ Church University

John McGowan, Academic Director, Doctoral Programme in Clinical Psychology, Canterbury Christ Church University

Ian Marsh, Senior Lecturer in Occupational Therapy, Canterbury Christ Church University

Joanna Moncrieff, Senior Lecturer in Psychiatry, University College London

David Pilgrim, Professor of Health and Social Policy, University of Liverpool

Mark Radcliffe, Lecturer in Mental Health Nursing, Kings College London

Rai Waddingham, Hearing Voices Network and International Society for Psychological and Social Approaches to Psychosis, and with personal experience of psychosis

Jay Watts, Clinical Psychologist and Psychotherapist, Queen Mary, University of London

Paul Wilson, Head of Mental Health Services for Sirona

--------------------------------------------