A recent opinion piece says there’s more to mental health supports that a retweet.
Freelance journalist Philip Moscovitch has been writing about mental illness for years.
His recent piece for The Globe and Mail raises concerns that large-scale awareness campaigns can sanitize the language around mental illness.
“Then the trouble is you wind up with these meaningless phrases like, mental health affects us all. Health affects us all, breathing affects us all. It doesn’t really mean anything to say that.”
Moscovitch is concerned the campaign has no way of identifying if any objectives have been met.
“The reason military campaigns work is because, they’re short and focused and have a specific target so we know when we’ve succeeded. And large-scale awareness campaigns don’t have those things.”
He says, the trouble is, there is no evidence to show people’s behaviours are changed over the long term by these campaigns.
Moscovitch says the money from these initiatives could go to more concrete programs such as providing housing for those with mental illness.
He says not having to worry about where you will live has an amazing effect on people’s recovery.
