Commenting on the NHS Information Centre's
Attitudes to
Mental Illness 2011 survey report, Dr Peter Byrne, Director of
Public Education at the Royal College of Psychiatrists, said:
“We welcome this well-conducted survey, the
results of which can be compared with surveys from previous
years.
“It is positive to see improvements in
people’s self-acceptance of mental health problems, and an
increasing willingness to talk about their mental health – even to
their employers.
“However, the negative headlines are the 1 in
6 people who wrongly attribute mental health problems to a lack of
will-power, the 1 in 5 people with ‘NIMBY’ (not in my back yard)
attitudes, and the 1 in 4 people who would not trust a woman who
had been in a psychiatric hospital as their babysitter.
“Forcing people with mental health problems to
the margins increases stigma and discrimination against them. Our
message is to remind people to think about the consequences of
excluding others from society, and to remember that 1 in 4 of us
will develop a major mental health problem at some point in our
lives.”
For further information, please
contact:
Liz Leicester
or Deborah Hart in the Communications
Department.
Telephone: 020 7235 2351 Extensions. 6298 or 6127
References:
The full survey results can be found here: www.ic.nhs.uk/pubs/attitudestomi11