According to Erving Goffman, if a person has attributes that not only make the person differ from other people, but may also be seen as “a less desirable kind”, we will not see him or her as a “discounted” person instead of a “usual” one. In Hong Kong, there is a nuance of communities being stigmatized – LGBT, physically handicapped people, ethnic minorities and more. In this paper, the stigmatization of mentally ill patients will be reviewed.
Mental illness is a state in which influences one’s feelings, mood and thoughts. Statistics have shown there is a progressive increase in the number of in-patient discharges and death in Hospital Authority hospitals for mental and behavioral disorders from 2008 to 2012. Of all age groups, there is …show more content…
A research has been done on attitudes and understanding towards mental disorders, specifically targeting Hong Kong people. It shows participants youngers or older than the age group 20-59 years old have less knowledge on mental illnesses. Although the researchers discovered no correlation between people’s education and their knowledge on mental illness, this can be rebutted by the mostly-young-people sample. Based on the findings, less knowledge on mental illness for elderlies can be due to the lack of in-depth understanding of mental disorders in previous decades. Another explanation for this would be old myths popularly passed on when one possess symptoms of a mental disease during the early 90s in Hong Kong, China. The traditional Chinese culture of “face” is greatly emphasized amongst their generation. This leads to a negative reaction towards mental illness. For younger participants (age 15- 19), it may be due to the lack of advocacy on mental illness awareness in …show more content…
The mass media often use misleading words or exaggerate an incident to make the news more “appealing” or “eye-catching” in the headlines. For example, mentally ill people are usually depicted as violent or lunatic in accidents involving injuries even death of other people. In the news articles, the author implies that the incident occurs because of the symptoms of a certain mental illness. This amplifies the misconception of mental disorders being dangerous. Since the mass media, such as newspapers, radio and TV are widely available to the general public, such misconception is further spread among the public. Most people simply believe what they see or heard from the news without further analysis of the nature of the news. It should be reminded that what is reported in the news may not be the truth of what really
Mental illness is a state in which influences one’s feelings, mood and thoughts. Statistics have shown there is a progressive increase in the number of in-patient discharges and death in Hospital Authority hospitals for mental and behavioral disorders from 2008 to 2012. Of all age groups, there is …show more content…
A research has been done on attitudes and understanding towards mental disorders, specifically targeting Hong Kong people. It shows participants youngers or older than the age group 20-59 years old have less knowledge on mental illnesses. Although the researchers discovered no correlation between people’s education and their knowledge on mental illness, this can be rebutted by the mostly-young-people sample. Based on the findings, less knowledge on mental illness for elderlies can be due to the lack of in-depth understanding of mental disorders in previous decades. Another explanation for this would be old myths popularly passed on when one possess symptoms of a mental disease during the early 90s in Hong Kong, China. The traditional Chinese culture of “face” is greatly emphasized amongst their generation. This leads to a negative reaction towards mental illness. For younger participants (age 15- 19), it may be due to the lack of advocacy on mental illness awareness in …show more content…
The mass media often use misleading words or exaggerate an incident to make the news more “appealing” or “eye-catching” in the headlines. For example, mentally ill people are usually depicted as violent or lunatic in accidents involving injuries even death of other people. In the news articles, the author implies that the incident occurs because of the symptoms of a certain mental illness. This amplifies the misconception of mental disorders being dangerous. Since the mass media, such as newspapers, radio and TV are widely available to the general public, such misconception is further spread among the public. Most people simply believe what they see or heard from the news without further analysis of the nature of the news. It should be reminded that what is reported in the news may not be the truth of what really