Frequently Asked Questions

What is a mentalympian?

Mentalympian is a respectful and strength-based term which describes an individual who competes against stigma, prejudice and/or discrimination by voluntarily disclosing that he or she has personally experienced a mental health problem.

What are the benefits of this type of community channel?

This community channel will provide several important benefits for people with mental health problems, not the least of which will be its role in helping to counter the negative effects of stigma in society. According to research, a significant number of individuals diagnosed with mental illness suffer from both low self-esteem and self-efficacy. Mentalympians will demonstrate recovery; inspire hope; and improve self-efficacy through social modeling. Such outcomes are of great benefit to society, but stories with positive themes are rarely communicated by mainstream media.

In fact, research demonstrates that news and entertainment companies contribute to the stigmatization of mental health problems. For example, according to 'Mass Media and Mental Illness: A Literature Review' (2004), a report prepared for the Canadian Mental Health Association, the international news and entertainment media's "...representations of mental illness promote negative images and stereotypes."

Not only do existing negative attitudes result in prejudice and discrimination against individuals with mental health problems, self-stigma threatens a person's identity, quality of life and recovery, and is extremely detrimental to the welfare of families of those with mental illness. According to 'Stigma: The Hidden Killer' (2006), a background paper and literature review for the Mood Disorders Society of Canada: "Stigma is not limited to the attitudes and actions of others. Self-stigma relates to internalized negative stereotypes that lead people with mental illness and their families to adopt attitudes of self-loathing and self-blame leading to a sense of helplessness and hopelessness."

One recent example of stigma-producing 'entertainment' is The Dark Knight, the 2008 Batman movie which, as one of the highest grossing films internationally of all-time, has been viewed by tens of millions of people. Although Warner Bros. profited handsomely from the movie in financial terms, screen writers Jonathon and Christopher Nolan's depiction of a violent and deranged criminal in the movie as having paranoid schizophrenia needlessly contributes to an existing negative stereotype. This is clearly evident during the film when Batman remarks:

"His name's Schiff, Thomas. He's a paranoid schizophrenic, a former patient at Arkham. The kind of mind the Joker attracts. What do you expect to learn from him?"

Patrick W. Corrigan and Amy C. Watson's 'The Paradox of Self-Stigma and Mental Illness', published in 2002 by the American Psychological Association, found that many people with mental illness become more active participants in the mental health system because of the prejudice, related to their illness, that they have experienced. Thus, it is reasonable to speculate that such a community channel will become a focal point for activism, and create favourable conditions to develop a large social movement.

Furthermore, this community channel will acknowledge the tremendous emotional support made by so many families and friends of people with mental illness. Stories of recovery as well as information related to both treatments and local services appearing on Mentalympians will simultaneously help families and friends. Because the experience of emotionally supporting a person with mental illness is different than actually having such an illness, one possible approach might be to create a specific section on the website to encourage the creation of unique programming for families and friends. This would assist related organizations to collaborate and eventually they might create their own community channel, one which could, where appropriate, share programming with Mentalympians and also air other productions developed to meet the specific needs of families and friends.

How can this type of community channel be created?

After analyzing both the available research on the topic and several major issues faced by individuals with mental health problems, a review was conducted to investigate how to apply existing technology to the types of social problems mentioned above. This initiative will simply utilize existing technology, which other organizations and companies currently use on the Internet, to build and operate the community channel for addressing specific needs of individuals with mental illness as well as their families and friends.

The application of technology to solve social challenges is nothing new. When accepting the James C. Morgan Global Humanitarian Award for 2006, Microsoft founder Bill Gates emphasized how technology can contribute to the provision of solutions to complex social problems. The entrepreneur/philanthropist added that several of the technology laureates had looked at various problems and "...found ways that technology could be brought to bear."

While technology is an important element of this initiative, people are the key resource necessary for this community channel. Despite the existing social stigma, prejudice and discrimination, there are individuals who have already acknowledged publicly their experience of mental health problems and are standing up for human rights and social justice in this area. Ultimately, the success of such a channel will be its ability to collaborate with existing organizations to build the necessary social capital which creates a supportive and respectful environment that fosters genuine participation by individuals with lived experience of mental health problems in this initiative.