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ENG COMP 105
Professor Tingle
William Karambelas 1
Call to Action for a N
ational Mental Health PSA William Karambelas Department of English, Arizona State University ENG 105: Advanced First Year Composition Professor Tingle September 29, 2023
ENG COMP 105
Professor Tingle
William Karambelas 2
Call to Action for a National Mental Health PSA Millions of Americans suffer from a mental illness without knowing they have one. That represents millions suffering without knowing the cause of their pain. Stigma prevents people from getting the treatment they desperately need. Think about the quality of life increase, and increases in productivity simply if more people were made aware about mental illness. The worst prison is one’s worst mind. Untreated mental illness leads to institutionalization and incarceration. OCD alone costs millions in disability allocations. However, the benefits to quality of life are incalculable. A mental health PSA is a good investment because of the immeasurable benefits to those that it helps. Specifically, a national style PSA and if not economically feasible, a local PSA at ASU Online. Stigma about mental illness prevents people from getting help. Stigma, in particular, prevents people from seeking help for their mental illness. (Corrigan, Druss, Perlick, 2014) Stigma often comes from the environment. People’s negative attitudes toward mental illness help form stigma. Stigma just doesn’t affect treatment rates. Stigma also lowers self-efficacy and self-
esteem. (Watson, Corrigan Larson, Sella, 2006) This loss of self-efficacy impairs the ability of the patient to seek treatment on its own. Having low self-esteem further discourages patients from treatment.
ENG COMP 105
Professor Tingle
William Karambelas 3
However, research suggests that invention via media is possible. Media is anything that produces information, but for the purposes of this essay we will consider media to only be the domain of video. This is because the evidence most strongly supports this format. Watching a movie aimed at lowering stigma can have positive benefits on expectations before seeking treatment (Anderson, DeMyan, 2012). This makes sense because the participant can empathize with the media, especially with human actors. The same research also supports evidence that watching a supporting video can lower belief-based barrier as well. Anything that lowers the barrier to treatment is going to get more people stable and functioning. The main drawbacks I see with my approach are all cost-prohibitive. To truly get the reach I’m looking for, millions would have to be spent on the recording, production and distribution of such media. While many may argue that there are more deserving charities, the worst prison is one’s own mind. Shouldn’t we give people a chance before we, at great cost, institutionalize or incarcerate them. Institutionalization for mental illness cost 22.5 billion in 1963. (Rice, 2011) Figures since are hard to find due to the fact that institutionalization has been replaced by incarceration. Incarceration in America costs 75 billion dollars. (Gupta, Schmitt, Warner, 2010) While not all of these incarnated people are untreated mental ill people, a staggering amount are.
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ENG COMP 105
Professor Tingle
William Karambelas 4
In another study, participants actually showed less stigma after watching a recovery-
based video. (Al-Khousa, Corrigan, Powell, 2015) This study demonstrates that the concept of a mental health PSA has benefits. Lowering stigma is one of these benefits and this change lead to real improvements in treatment seeking rates. Stigma prevents people from accessing mental health care. There is feasible evidence that stigma can be lowered by watching a supportive recovery video. Where a recovery video is defined as a person going from sick to healthy. Social media may also be a promising alternative to traditional media to get the word out. Users seeking mental health support find social media to be “accessible and simple.” (Saud, Ida, 2020) However the same study noted the varying levels of accuracy on the topic of mental health on social media. As it rests, social media is a promising outlet for getting out the message about mental health. However, since anyone can share anything and have it go viral, I’m cautious to recommend social media as a truth resource. This is not to mean that it could not be in the future. Just as it stands social media is the wild-west of communications. The rules are being made as things happen. While social media today may not be a prime candidate for an effective PSA, it very well may be viable in the future. Another alternative may be college campus intervention. College is a time of personal reflection and may be a salient time for a mental illness initiative. Resources could be better allocated with university support. College students have a high amount of stigma regarding
ENG COMP 105
Professor Tingle
William Karambelas 5
mental illness. (Downs, Eisenberg, Golberstein, Zivin, 2009) Factors that exacerbate this stigma are being male, young, Asian, more religious, or being from a poor family. (Downs, Eisenberg, Golberstein, Zivin, 2009) However, this approach is still weaker than my proposed alternative. It’s a weaker proposition because it presumes that everyone goes to college and will have a chance at this formative, life changing experience. If cost is an issue this could be a viable avenue. Even without national reach, ASU has 70k+ online students that could view this message. One could argue that the inherent college funding and pliability of students could make this avenue make more financial sense. Still, change concentrated at one university will not have nationwide effects, even if its students are dispersed. Stigma prevents people from seeking help or even realizing that they have a mental illness. Stigma lowers self-efficacy and self-esteem. Both barriers are formidable for patients seeking care for their mental illness. Media can mediate the effects of stigma. Especially, recovery based media is effective at restoring self-efficacy and self-esteem. Social media has its benefits and its barriers. Social media, while accessible, isn’t high quality when it comes to reliability of information. This fact can have anyone reasonably question the validity of the message, regardless of if it's valid. College PSAs could be effective, but they are hidden behind intellectual and class barriers. Something needs to be done about untreated mental illness. I suggest this solution because it’s supported by evidence. Research shows attitudes around mental health stigma can be mediated by video media. It’s time to put such research into action and spark a national campaign. It’s time for a call to action to make people aware of their mental illnesses. The best
ENG COMP 105
Professor Tingle
William Karambelas 6
way to do this would be a national campaign, although that is not always feasible. A college PSA might be a better avenue due to funding and the vulnerability of college students. However, due to inequality issues, if money were no object, a national PSA would be a stronger avenue.
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ENG COMP 105
Professor Tingle
William Karambelas 7
Annotated References Corrigan, P. W., Druss, B. G., & Perlick, D. A. (2014). The impact of mental illness stigma on seeking and participating in mental health care. Psychological Science in the Public Interest
, 15
(2), 37–70. https://doi.org/10.1177/1529100614531398 Stigma prevents people from accessing mental health care. Stigma is a complex problem that has public, self, and structural components. Mental health literacy, cultural competence and family engagement seem to mediate the effects of stigma. This source is credible, its institutions include Emory University and Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City. It is also peer reviewed. The relevance of this article is showing how stigma can be an impediment to mental health. It provides a pretext for the problem being presented. As well as providing the solutions of mental health literacy, cultural competence and family engagement. I will use this section to show the impact of stigma on mental health and show some remedies including cultural engagement. Corrigan, P. W., Powell, K. J., & Al-Khouja, M. A. (2015). Examining the impact of public service announcements on help seeking and stigma. Journal of Nervous & Mental Disease
, 203
(11), 836–842. https://doi.org/10.1097/nmd.0000000000000376 Health communication campaigns seek to diminish stigma and promote care seeking. One example is the Australian PSA Beyond Blue. Participants saw an ad aimed at destigmatizing mental illness. Their attitudes toward mental illness were measured pre-
op. Post-, and 72 hours later. Findings suggest a recovery oriented video was correlated with a greater reduction in stigmatizing attitudes. Participants showed less stigmatizing attitudes after the stimulus. I believe this source to be credible as it’s peer reviewed and from reputable universities. This source is important to use because it provides a framework that shows that PSA’s work. It is relevant to my argument because it shows that PSA’s can change attitudes around mental health stigma. Naturally, I’d use it in my paper to show the efficacy of PSA’s on mental health stigma. Demyan, A. L., & Anderson, T. (2012). Effects of a brief media intervention on expectations, attitudes, and intentions of mental health help seeking. Journal of Counseling Psychology
, 59
(2), 222–229. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0026541 This study sought to understand the effects of a mass-media video campaign on the expectations, attitudes, and intentions to seek help for a mental illness. 228 participants were assigned to either see the stimulus or look at a control. The media intervention was found to be effective on expectation and belief based barriers to seeking treatment for mental illness. I believe this source to be credible as it’s peer reviewed and from reputable universities. This source is important because it supports my argument that
ENG COMP 105
Professor Tingle
William Karambelas 8
public service PSA’s, on the topic of mental illness, can influence the desire to seek help. This is relevant to my argument because it shows efficacy of the idea of a public service PSA on mental health. Gupta, S., Schmitt, J., Warner K. (2010). The High Budgetary Cost of Incarceration. Center for Economic and Policy Research. I used this source to show the true cost of incarceration Saud, M., Mashud, M., & Ida, R. (2020). Usage of social media during the pandemic: Seeking support and awareness about COVID-19 through social media platforms. Journal of Public Affairs
. https://doi.org/10.1002/pa.2417 The paper finds that social media has become a more popular way to share information about mental health stigma. The study looks at the period where the world was hunkered down during the COVID epidemic. In the new world of digital providers, digital outreach over social media seems effective. Participants said using social media to access such information was “simple and accessible.” Social media could be a possible avenue for mental health awareness that I hadn’t considered. I believe this source to be credible as it’s peer reviewed and from reputable universities. My original plan was to do a television broadcast. I fear social media may be less credible but it might have a better outreach. The relevance of this article is it shows an alternative path for my PSA. I could present it as an alternative in my paper. Rice. D., (2011) Estimating the Cost of Illness. American Journal of Public Health
This source goes over the cost of institutionalization and how institutionalization has turned into incarceration. Watson, A. C., Corrigan, P., Larson, J. E., & Sells, M. (2006). Self-stigma in people with mental illness. Schizophrenia Bulletin
, 33
(6), 1312–1318. https://doi.org/10.1093/schbul/sbl076 People with mental illness internalize mental illness stigma and experience diminished self-esteem and self-efficacy. All patients completed a battery of tests including the Self-
Stigma of Mental Illness Scale along with measures like group identification, perceived legitimacy, self-esteem and self-efficacy. Stigma was found to be a mediator of group identity and perceived legitimacy of medicine. I believe this source to be credible as it’s peer reviewed and from reputable universities. People with mental illness experience less self-esteem and self-efficacy due to stigma around their mental illness. This creates another pretext for my PSA to call to action. It is relevant because it shows the deleterious effects of stigma and sets the stage for a solution.