Sawt al Niswa | صوت النسوة - Psychiatry & Feminism

Beyond Symptoms: Politicizing Therapy

Lamia Moghnie — Mon, 24 Jul 2017 09:17:53 +0000

Sinine Nakhle

Catherine Moughalian

Lebanon has witnessed a slow but steady fight against the stigmatization of mental illness. Local non-profit organizations like the Institute for Development, Research, Advocacy and Applied Care (IDRAAC), networks like the Lebanese Psychological Association and Embrace, as well as governmental actors like the Ministry of Health have led powerful and creative initiatives that have shifted the way we deal with and talk about mental illness in Lebanon.

While such initiatives are proving to be successful in removing barriers to help-seeking behavior, such as stigma and lack of knowledge about mental disorders, it is also important in this process to re-think our basic understanding of mental illness and of mental health practice. This article opens the discussion on the need to tackle the root systemic causes of mental illness and bring politics into the therapy session to empower those suffering from their socio-economic and political realities. To do so, we revisit our understanding of abnormality and highlight the powerful role that psychotherapists can play in pushing individuals forward to make societal change.

How does a therapist differentiate between a client’s ‘normal’ reaction to losing a job, for example, and a full-blown depressive episode? And how should a therapist approach individual psychological issues when they are clearly caused by systemic problems?

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5th edition[1]) explicitly distinguishes between normal and abnormal mental functioning through three necessary criteria of abnormality commonly referred to as the 3Ds. Unlike a triggered stress reaction, a disordered condition is Deviant, Distressing, and Dysfunctional.

The DSM’s criteria of abnormality have been subject to debate, and are still amenable to change. What is of particular interest for us here is the American Psychiatric Association’s understanding of Dysfunction. If a client is unable to meet “social, school, and work obligations” (DSM, p.301), or engage in “professional or family obligations” (p. 367), over certain periods that differ across disorders, he or she is by definition experiencing dysfunction.

Thus, embedded in our understanding of mental illness are assumptions about the contributions an individual should ‘normally make’ to societal, economic, and familial systems. Based on those expectations, we tend to put the burden of change and adaptability on the individual, instead of questioning the system or context in which the individual exists.

If a client has sleeping patterns that do not fit the 8:00 to 5:00 work shift, if they do not have the attention span or willingness to spend stretches of time on tasks they perceive to be devoid of meaning, we are quick to advise them to seek professional help. Yet if we contextualize our notion of ‘normal functioning’ by zooming out of the individual to consider the effect of macro-level factors on people’s subjective experiences, we might realize that our expectations of the ‘average’ student or employee are today increasingly difficult to meet.

A common and still potent criticism of psychotherapy is that it rarely factors in these macro level factors into the therapy session. The focus is instead on the individual. The client is encouraged to look inwards and shy away from external issues such as political concerns or social structures. If the client happens to mention political themes or concerns during a consult, the topic of discussion is on how this relates to them, and why they are responding to or perceiving the situation in that particular way.

Most therapists actively refrain from contributing to their client’s political development and political action. In fact, a bulk of research on psycho-politics explains why therapists have historically shifted away from any political engagement with their clients in the mid- 1900s[2]. Although the initial intention of therapists in such person-centered forms of therapy is to empower the client, more often than not, they tend to do just the opposite.

The social, political, and economic situation in Lebanon today and the state of the world in general, is likely to create a pervasive state of worry and helplessness. Thinking about one’s future and the future of loved ones can become a significant source of stress. A recent study by Maalouf and colleagues showed that anxiety disorders are the most prevalent among Lebanese youth residing in Beirut (Maalouf et al., 2016[3]). Would it not be empowering for clients to address the systemic issues affecting their constant worrying, instead of focusing on how they should adapt to an unpredictable and competitive environment? Considering the context, are the increasing rates of anxiety not a normal reaction to social, political, and economic problems?

Still, political concerns expressed during therapy are either avoided or used by the therapist to discuss symptoms and coping skills. The focus becomes on reading true feelings and/or opinions as symbolizing internal individual states, rather than recognizing a profound need to talk about the issue. Psychotherapy as a field is not equipped to respond to major issues affecting patients’ lives, such as continual exposure to gender inequality and violence, economic and financial concerns, near constant fear of war that creates a perpetual state of uncertainty, concerns about environmental disasters, etc. It is only normal for such an uncertain economic and political climate to increase in levels of anxiety in a given population.

In these instances, it is a sign of mental health that such concerns would hinder an individual from functioning and going through their daily routine. In fact, it is precisely because people remain functional in times of local or international crises that social problems propagate. Yet in not being able to cope, most people might blame themselves, feel like a failure, and fall into a state of a prolonged learned helplessness. Is the role of the therapist in this context to work on the client’s coping skills to adapt to a failed economic and political system? When does the problem stop being about individual response patterns, and become about a status quo creating increasingly more prevalent symptoms of “mental illness”?

In our current context, a depoliticized psychology only serves to propagate the status quo and reinforces the unspoken assumption of personal responsibility and failure in one’s inability to adapt. An apolitical, objective, and neutral psychotherapist is, knowingly or unknowingly, complicit with an unjust and oppressive system. Focusing on the individual’s responses to a given situation without addressing the ways in which the client can change the external world frames the external situation as an inherently unchangeable reality.

We call on mental health practitioners to engage in conversation with clients if and when clients express the need to discuss political issues. These could range from frustrations about governmental decisions, to frustration about workplace interactions. In so doing, therapists have the power to turn their client’s distress into a refreshing vital force capable of instigating change. In a recent New York Times article, psychotherapist Richard Brouillette eloquently reminds his colleagues that the integration of political issues into the therapy session is not the sole responsibility of a social worker (Brouillette, 2016[4]):

“You would be surprised how seldom it occurs to people that

their problems are not their fault. By focusing on fairness and justice,

a patient may have a chance to find what has so frequently been lost:

an ability to care for and stand up for herself. Guilt can be replaced with a clarifyinganger,

one that liberates a desire — and a demand — to thrive,to turn outward toward others rather than inward,

one that draws her forward to make change.”

[1] American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (DSM-5®). American Psychiatric Pub.

[2] For a review, see Totton, N. (2000). Psychotherapy and politics. Sage.

[3] Maalouf, F. T., Ghandour, L. A., Halabi, F., Zeinoun, P., & Tavitian, L. (2016). Psychiatric disorders among adolescents from Lebanon: prevalence, correlates, and treatment gap. Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology, 51(8), 1105-1116.

[4] Brouillette, E. (2016). Why therapists should talk politics. The New York Times.

Publisher:

Sawt al' Niswa

Section:

Opinions

Category:

Opinions

Tags:

Featured:

كيف بيشوف الطب النفسي بلبنان العاملات الاجنبيات وكيف بشخّصهم؟

Lamia Moghnie — Mon, 24 Jul 2017 08:14:19 +0000

pascale ghazaly

Publisher:

Sawt al' Niswa

Section:

Opinions

Category:

Migrant workers

Tags:

Featured:

I Am Your sickness: My Foreign Body as Pathology

Lamia Moghnie — Mon, 24 Jul 2017 07:52:32 +0000

Egon Schiele, Mädchen mit übereinandergeschlagenen Beinen (Girl with Crossed Legs), 1911

Najwa Sabra

Pathology (n.)

Any deviation from a healthy or normal condition

My body is a fertile ground for misunderstanding. It inspires bewilderment and fear. It purges itself and syncs with the moon. My womb has a mind of its own -- it could start wandering around at any point, causing me to act erratically and uncontrollably.

I am your alienation. You do not see yourself in my unfamiliarity. I seek safety in numbers. I roam the streets looking for fellow foreign bodies. We, the non-default.

There is always a moment of discovery, a sort of realization of your own foreignness. Mine came with intense headaches in my early childhood. My mind was too much for my frail body and I often fantasized of being able to simply remove it. To experience the lightness of headlessness. My worried parents were repeatedly told by emergency room personnel that it must be psychological. It took years before a doctor was able to name my pain as one that had long inflicted my father’s family: try this medicine, he said, if it works then it is migraine.

My feeble body, eternally misunderstood, baffled doctors. The nature of my pain was somehow implausible. They threw Deanxit at my backache, Xanax at my muscle cramps, and always asked me if I was stressed when my stomach hurt. My gynecologist referred me to the psychologist in her building as soon as I uttered the word “discomfort”. I completely lost credibility when, in addition to being a woman, I became a migrant. I became totally illegible as a corporeal being. The doctors did not need to do blood tests to know what was wrong with me. The diagnosis to my physical ailments was consistently presented to me in the question: “When did the war start in your country?”

How I hated their sad eyes, --“There is no war in my country”-- their downward looks, their slightly tilted heads, their eyebrows crossed just enough to show gentle concern -- “The horrible things you must have witnessed, you poor thing!”. That concern, I came to expect it, but I never grew accustomed to it and it never ceased to enrage me.

I read an article the other day that wrote of women who are dying because doctors treat us like men, and I immediately thought: we also die because they treat us unlike men. While medical research historically used male bodies as default, endangering women by not recognizing their particularities, medical personnel certainly does not apply that same gender-blindness.

Women are forced to prove that pain is based in reality and not in emotion. Screaming does not help us get heard. It silences us -- the hysterics. So I muffle the screams. I nod my head, feign understanding, and cry my rage out on my walks home from the clinic.

I anguish as I recall the day I came close to losing my friend. I see her on that hospital bed, gasping for air. A week earlier, a doctor had prescribed her Xanax for her “anxiety induced short breath”. Another suggested her period was exhausting her body. She had diabetes, and was, at that point, on the brink of comatose.

We, foreign bodies, are undoubtedly a pathology -- a deviation from normality -- whether by birth or through cultural displacement. We are threats neutralized by psychotropic medication and farcical beings made legible through psychiatric diagnosis.

Nineteenth-century microbiologists explained illness as an exogenous phenomenon, suggesting that disease originates not in the essential composition of the body, but in an external, intruding pathogen to which the body had been exposed. I know this not to be true, for I have experienced sickness from within.

I am not sick. I am your sickness. I am the pathology within your body. The projection of your privileged fears. Go on. Medicate me into your own oblivion.

Publisher:

Sawt al' Niswa

Section:

Opinions

Category:

Opinions

Tags:

Featured:

Mental Health Advocacy in Lebanon: Fighting Stigma Without Providing Access

Lamia Moghnie — Sun, 23 Jul 2017 21:00:00 +0000

A poster for the Embrace 2013 “Fekko el 3e2de” campaign

Joumana Talhouk

If you look up the work of leading NGOs on mental health in Lebanon today, you will come across numerous awareness campaigns centered around fighting the stigma on mental illness. Embrace, for example, has launched a yearly event entitled “Break the Stigma” in collaboration with the AUB Psychology Student Society, where patients share their experiences with different mental disorders. IDRAAC’s work is also heavily focused on mental health awareness campaigns, including periodic lectures in schools and universities.

Obviously, such initiatives are much needed to challenge the dominant attitudes of ridicule, disrespect, insensitivity, and aversion towards people with mental illness. Breaking the stigma not only means compelling society as a collective to understand the reality of mental illness though; it also helps individuals recognize the symptoms of mental disorders and urges them to seek care if they present with these symptoms. But, how can one even access mental health care in Lebanon?

With the exception of the free healthcare (of doubtful quality) that one could receive at the primary health centers of the ministry of health's network, one usually has to set aside a hefty budget to get proper mental health treatment. Currently, the overwhelming majority of private insurance companies do not include mental health in their healthcare coverage, not even if one is willing to pay a higher premium for it, and certainly not for outpatient care. This may be the case because people still do not consider psychological or emotional suffering to be “real” or a “medical problem.” But one also has to wonder how much the excessively high prices charged by psychologists and psychiatrists play a part in deterring insurance providers from covering their consultations (especially considering the unique feature of therapy and psychiatric consultations: their need to be repeated periodically).

In the rare cases where mental health is covered, the person seeking care has to overcome many bureaucratic hurdles to secure their right for coverage. For example, to get covered for mental health treatment by Health Insurance Plan (HIP) at AUB, you first have to fill out a request form in person. After a week (if you’re lucky - sometimes it takes up to 3 weeks), you go back to receive a referral to a specific psychiatrist or psychologist on campus. After getting a referral, you take an appointment from the AUBMC psychiatry department. On the day of the appointment, you have to get the referral stamped at the HIP office and give it to the secretary of the psychiatry department. If you do not present this paper before the appointment (but on the same day), HIP refuses to cover the fees. If you need follow-up sessions, you have to ask the doctor to write a report specifying that you are in need of more sessions. This report must be taken to another office to be processed, which usually takes about 1 week. Then, you have to go back and take another referral, specifying how many follow-up sessions will be covered automatically. Again, on the day of the next appointment, you have to take the paper given by UHS and get it signed by HIP. And the cycle continues. (Note: HIP actually only fully covers the first 3 sessions).

Step-by-step guide to HIP mental health coverage prepared for students by the AUB Graduate Student Society

Few patients end up completing this overwhelming bureaucratic process process to actually receive mental health services. I stopped my therapy because of the countless steps required of me; I was too depressed to go from office to office getting signature after signature in order to feel better.

So, if you have been graced by one of the mental health awareness campaigns and realized that you need care, you’d have to pay $50 weekly on average to see a psychologist and maybe an additional $100 periodically to see a psychiatrist, or go through a million procedures (which, ironically, your mental condition might prevent you from doing) to get coverage.

While it may be important to fight stigma, it is flagrantly shortsighted to do so when people who would like to seek mental health care simply cannot.

Publisher:

Sawt al' Niswa

Section:

Opinions

Category:

Opinions

Tags:

Featured:

A Political Economy of Mental Health: Stories and (Un)Related Facts

Lamia Moghnie — Sun, 23 Jul 2017 21:00:00 +0000

Sanayeh Garden (from the blog Old Beirut; www.oldbeirut.com)

Cynthia Kreichati

This article is a sequence of vignettes. Each vignette emphasizes one specific idea and can be understood on its own but is also part of something bigger than itself.

The second half of the 19^th Century was difficult for the Sick Man of Europe.

The Ottoman Empire and its peoples were facing socioeconomic hardship and political turmoil. When the Ottoman Sultan signed the first of a series of many decrees to reform state and society, the Empire was already caught in the throes of colonial ambitions and rising nationalism, and facing the consequences of its unavoidable participation in the exchange of people, goods, money and ideas.

Among other things, these Tanzimat – modernizing reforms – had a striking impact on public health and led to the creation of institutions, such as the maritime quarantine – known as Quarantina – and the sanatorium^{^[i]} of Bhannes, concerned with the well-being of individuals and communities alike.

The decline of the sanatoria began with the discovery of antibiotics and many, like the Sanatorium of Bhannes, were transformed into general hospitals. Patients diagnosed with tuberculosis were thus treated with antibiotics such as Iproniazid, a molecule that prevented an enzyme - the monoamine oxidase - from breaking down a specific category of neurotransmitters - the monoamines, which were chemical compounds that transported messages in the brain.

Upon taking this drug, patients often experienced euphoria. It did not take long for researchers from the pharmaceutical industry to notice and investigate this further. The Monoamine theory they developed suggested that these neurotransmitters spread messages of biological happiness in our brains.

Knowledge does not exist in a vacuum. The way it is produced, disseminated and then used is a manifestation and an expression of a belonging to a larger worldview.

Knowledge is generated and then translated in response to the needs of the class or the group to which its producer belongs. Although some discoveries happen by chance rather than intentionally, the way they’re used is not.

For example, researchers identify a potent chemical compound that could be used to treat illnesses in humans. The journey from chemical compound to medicine is a lengthy and intricate process, often shaped by political, economic and social forces. Moving from the creation/invention of the drug to its prescription and its purchase by the patient entails the scientific and technical production of the drug, its pricing and regulatory framework, from marketing authorization to prescription policies and its promotion and distribution.

Global and local forces, politics, the law, culture and mores, the economy and the labor market to name a few shape the way medicine and the pharmaceutical industry respond to illness. In turn, they are also shaped by these very same responses.

These forces play a considerable role in the way we view, diagnose, treat and address mental illness. The discovery of the Monoamine theory was fortuitous but it influenced the onset and the course of an illness and fueled an entire industry: depression and the anti-depressants.

When the Ottoman Empire entered the global market, many families from Syria and Mount Lebanon became traders working between Beirut, Damascus, Baghdad and Tehran, selling and distributing European and, later on, American brands including medicine.

Throughout the years-civil wars and post-war reconstruction and development plans included-trade in Lebanon retained its prominence. It is still today an important pillar of the economy. Local pharmaceutical industry is underdeveloped, local production poor and reliance on importation remarkably high. There are only six pharmaceutical factories in Lebanon (Mephico, Pharmadex, Algorithm, Mediphar, Pharmaline, Benta) and their market share of production does not exceed 8%.^{^[ii]}

80% of drugs are imported and the global pharmaceutical industry is represented in Lebanon through scientific offices- like Pfizer, Eli Lilly, Lundbeck, Glaxo Smith Kline and Johnson & Johnson - in charge of marketing, communication and pharmaco-vigilance^{^[iii]} and through importation agents that deal with the manufacturers and import products and medicine and distribute it in the country.

Many of these importers are the descendants of the same families that started the trade business over a century ago. A small group of importers control the majority of local markets in a way that comes to resemble exclusive monopolies - although the exclusive right to import food and medicine cannot be granted by the law. A consequence of this quasi-monopoly endows importers with powers. Sometimes, they do not inform the Ministry of Public Health of price change in the country of origin of the drugs they import; they decide to discontinue importation when the profit margin is not very significant; and they replace a drug that is cheap with one that is more expensive.

According to figures from the Lebanese Customs, in 2014, Lebanon imported $1.1 billion in pharmaceutical products^{^[iv]}. Here’s a math problem: if 10 companies control 90% of the market and 4 of these companies control 50% of the market, then how much profit do these companies make?

In studying the relationship between social classes and political power, Fawwaz Traboulsi recalls the government of Lebanon’s attempt to join the World Trade Organization under Rafic Hariri’s leadership in the early 2000s. The WTO’s terms stipulated the liberalization of the economy and the end of monopolies in trade and importation.

Because of the modern history of trade in the region and Europe’s longstanding relationship to the minorities, many importers are Christian. The debate over Hariri’s proposed economic reforms back then took a sectarian turn. Some saw in it an attempt by Muslim businessmen to hijack the rights and privileges of Christian importers. The Patriarch of the Maronite Church and General Michel Aoun – still in exile at the time – even accused Syria of trying to jeopardize the economic independence of the Lebanese State.

There are almost no laws in Lebanon to regulate drug promotion and advertising to health professionals. Physicians are almost free to prescribe anything they want and pharmaceutical companies heavily influence medical education and conferences.

In 2016, the Ministry of Public Health introduced the Lebanese Code of Ethics to try and regulate pharmaceutical promotion as well as a unified prescription form for physicians. This form could eventually be collected by the Ministry and could provide valuable data to better understand what doctors prescribe, to whom and why.

There are radical and effective ways to address the hyper-medicalization and privatization of healthcare in Lebanon, especially in regards to mental illness.

To think globally, to take into account worldwide trends but to act locally;

To recognize that there is an oligarchy and private interests at stake at the expense of our own well being;

To push for a comprehensive public health policy that ensures accountability of all actors involved in the provision of healthcare beyond the corporatism of the professional orders (of physicians, pharmacists, etc.) and syndicates (private hospitals);

To curtail pharmaceutical promotion especially of psychotropic drugs, not only to psychiatrists but also gynecologists;

To collect and make available comprehensive data of pharmaceutical sales, prescriptions and prescribing habits of medicine;

To create a new political imaginary where a different, healthier, good life is possible for all.

^{^[i]}A medical facility for the treatment of long term illness, notably tuberculosis

^{^[ii]}SUKKARIEH, Ismail, Al dawaa’... mafia am azmat nithaam? (Pharmaceuticals: a mafia, or a system in crisis?), Part 1, Dar AL Farabi, Beirut, 2010

^{^[iii]}The monitoring of the effects of the drugs after they have been released on the market (especially to evaluate side effects)

^{^[iv]}Waiting for Reforms. Executive Magazine. 2015. (http://www.executive-magazine.com/economics-policy/healthcare-waiting-fo...)

Publisher:

Sawt al' Niswa

Section:

Opinions

Category:

hereandthere/من هنا وهناك

Tags:

Featured:

Reflections on Suicide Reporting in Online Lebanese Media

Lamia Moghnie — Sun, 23 Jul 2017 21:00:00 +0000

A graffiti depicting Nourhan Hammoud, the young activist who completed suicide in August 2016, published by http://blogbaladi.com/one-person-commits-suicide-in-lebanon-every-three-days/

Zeina Ghanem

It was late August, when I heard about Nourhan Hammoud’s suicide. As usual personal stories travel fast in Lebanon, like news across a grapevine. In the next couple of days, social media platforms were filled with personal statements expressing their opinion, some supporting, others denying Nourhan’s personal choice, as well as articles that reported the incident from different news outlets. One particular article, shared by many people on social media caught my attention, under the title “Asdika2 Nourhan Inta7arouha”, in Khattams an online magazine. It was an opinion piece by a journalist who thought she had the right to judge Nourhan’s personal decision to leave this place, her family, her friends, and everyone who thinks of attempting suicide. I was aggravated by this article and the style of the writer. I don’t know if it has crossed her mind how people at risk of suicide, or Nourhan’s bereaved family and friends might feel reading this, how such judgments and trivialization might trigger people. But unfortunately that wasn’t the only article. The more I searched, the more articles I found some along the same lines.

There are several precipitating factors leading to suicide, mental illness, substance use, physical illness,access to means, media reports, etc. Reporting suicide by media outlets has been a major field of study since the early 1970s, due to widely spread belief that media reports on suicide may lead to imitative or copycat acts especially by vulnerable individuals. According to the World Health Organization (WHO) relevant circulation of information, responsible reporting and public education are fundamental components in the success of suicide prevention programs (WHO, 2000). Along with the International Suicide Foundation (ISF) the WHO developed a set of guidelines for media professionals entitled: “Preventing Suicide: A Resource for Media Professionals” that serves as a guide for media professionals across the globe on how to responsibly report suicide.

In addition to the above, the WHO (2000) guidelines urge media professionals to take the opportunity to educate the public about suicide, avoid language which sensationalizes or normalizes suicide, or presents it as a solution to problems, evade blatant placement and undue repetition of stories about suicide. Moreover, the guidelines, advise media professionals to avoid clear and detailed explanation of the method or site of a completed/ attempted suicide and most importantly to show respect to people bereaved by suicide. The WHO’s aim from such an initiative was in no way to limit freedom of expression but rather to produce responsible reports due to the sensitivity of this topic .

After looking into media coverage of Nourhan’s suicide, it became clear that journalists were not keen on applying the guidelines (were they even aware that they exist?) or even showing respect to Nourhan or her family. The Lebanese media relied on terminologies to exaggerate and sensationalize the topic and the experience for the reader. Some of those terminologies were:

• “Nourhan Wadaat al Hayat”, “Ekhtarat qadaraha bi yadiha”, atlakat al shaba Nourhan Hammoud Al Hourriya li jassadiha al masjoun bi doughoutat al hayat… (Al Afkar.net)

• aykanat anna el hayat la tastahiq al aana’ (kataeb.org)

• Inna al itihar horoub w jubn w istislam w ananiya w ghaba’ (http://khattamas.com) 

The common approach across all reports was to delve into Nourhan’s personal life, family problems, and the possibility of the presence of mental illness (mostly depression) that led her to complete (1) suicide. Some of them even went so far as to observe Nourhan’s Facebook posts as well as her family’s and friends’ in order to extract the possible cause of suicide

Lastly, the WHO guidelines urge media to provide information about where to seek help at the end of the article to provide direct ways of support for vulnerable individuals (WHO, 10). Only one ne out of the 13 articles (Al Akhbar) mentioned briefly the action plan implemented by a local NGO (embrace) to launch a suicide hotline to aid people at risk of suicide, but did not mention how such NGOs can offer support and professional help. All the analyzed articles failed to comply with this simple instruction that the WHO deemed necessary in raising awareness and knowledge of available ways to seek help, which might decrease the chances of attempting suicide. The exclusion of such important information proved the presence of silences in the media accounts.

It was so disturbing to see those facts and to comprehend the irresponsibility of the Lebanese media on such a topic. As far as we know we lose a person every 2.5 days to suicide (Embrace, 2016), the least we can offer to the people at risk is guidance or reassurance that there are centers/NGOs willing to lend a helping hand when the road gets hard… People at risk of suicide, have a certain kind of ambivalence, a fight between wanting to live and dreading death but at the same time wanting to die. Their thoughts might be interminable and unavoidable and at many times end up alone with noone to talk to, no one to express their deepest fears to, that is why offering such information might help them realize they are not alone. Instead of writing articles and judging the person or the act, the media should focus more on writing articles that raise awareness on the topic, raise awareness on the resources available in Lebanon, though they aren’t many but both organizations Embrace and Idraac are working closely on supporting people with mental illness and people at risk of suicide. Going a step further, Embrace is initiating the first suicide helpline in Lebanon, to help people at risk of suicide. In support of this initiative, media should always mention this resource once it is active at any chance. Embrace has organized workshops around this topic for the media to shed light on the importance of their role. Hopefully such initiatives can spread to all media outlets.

I don’t understand how the journalists fail to consider that even though the person is deceased, their family/friends are still alive and they don’t need to read about their loved ones as cowards or heroes, they deserve respect and silence. If we had a community that is more accepting to mental illness and supporting to individuals that go through hell to make it through each day., andjournalists who care more about raising awareness and standing beside people, maybe people at risk of suicide would be more aware that they have support whether it is in centers or NGOs, or most importantly family and friends, or even individuals who have had similar experiences.

Discussing such issues more openly and erasing the stigma around them is a main step in raising awareness and alleviating misconceptions. And here lies the role of the Ministry of Public Health, along with the Ministry of Information to work on regulating the reports on suicide and hold workshops for all media outlets to raise awareness on the topic and on the role of the media.

Publisher:

Sawt al' Niswa

Section:

Opinions

Category:

Feminism & Media

Tags:

Featured: