This presentation exposes what is mental health with statistics that will open your eyes that this issue might be closer to home thank you think!   By Alison Roberts

1. Media & Social Construct
of Mental Health in Black
Community
By Alison Roberts

2. • Definition of social construct
• Social constructionism is a mechanism or
method that shapes one’s perception of
society and reality.
• Q. But whose reality?

3. Three types of recognised reality
• Experienced reality: refers to events that an
individual directly experiences, but it is limited
as it can impact on constructed reality.
• (eg: Media may portray a certain type of
person in a particular way. such as “teenagers
are delinquent”, yet if one meets a teenager
this opinion is incorrect.

4. ● Symbolic experience: an indirect experience that is
believed through media and social construct.
● (eg: African are hungry and live in mud huts…what
media shows us).
● Socially constructed: this is a combination of
experienced and symbolic reality. (Individuals who
share similar environments are exposed to same
information :eg: Trump vs Hilary campaign where
we are limited to media coverage which can be
bias)
● (Surette2007)

5. Difficulties with media & social
construct
• It impinges into peoples lives
• It marginalises and stigmatise certain social
groups
• Provide tools for empowerment or social
inclusion
• It delimits and can have negative bias
influences which creates stereotypical views
and unfounded assumptions.

6. • These constructs highlight conflict, poverty,
unemployment, discrimination, addiction,
dysfunctional, homelessness and crime which
are dangerously indicative of a creating negative
perception of specific BME communities. (Dr
Howarth 2011)

7. Have media and social construct
influence these statistics?
• Statistics from institute of race relations
• Criminal justice system: BME communities are
over-represented at all stages of justice
• Disproportionately targeted by police and are
more likely to be imprisoned with longer
sentences than white British people.

8. • Stop & search: more likely to stopped and
searched. In 2011 police were 28 times more
use sec 60 powers against black people rather
than white people
• 2014/15 …28% of the 539,788 stop and
search, did not lea to arrest…feels like stop
where based on suspected ‘suspicion
behaviour’ which can be seen as harassment
simple due to their colour

9. Continued statistics on social
construct influences
• In 2014 there were 1.04 million arrest in
England, however when looking at London
alone that figure represented 25% of the BME
communities.
• In 2014 black people were three times more
likely to be arrested than white people.

10. • Joint enterprise which convicts people purely
if they knew or are seen to have encouraged
the crime, is disproportionately used against
80% of BME groups. 27% are sentence at
crown court , 44% are sentence for driving
offences ,38% for public order offences/
weapon, 27% for drug possession.
• Equality and Human Rights Commission
reported that there is a greater
disproportionality in the number of black
people in prison in the UK than in the USA

11. Over presentation vs under
representation
• Employment in the criminal justice system
• 6% of senior judges are from BME
communities
• 8% of practitioners in the National Offenders
Management Service are from BME
communities
• 5% of police officers of senior rank are from
BME communities

12. Ethnicity and health statistics
• 23% of inpatients in MH services are from BME communities
(2010)
• Mind suggest discrimination in MH system
• 29% are forcibly detained under Mental Health Act
• 50% more likely to be put in seclusion and diagnosed as
psychotic (2013)
• 15% are treated with compulsory treatment orders. (Care
Quality Commission 2011/12)
• 50% Afro Caribbean people are more likely to be referred to
MH services via police than white people.
• (Black Mental Health UK)

13. Why are BME groups over
represented in these areas?
Fernando 2006, a Black Psychiatrist, who pioneered to bring
about awareness on these disturbing findings especially in
the MH sector. He looked at inequality in workplace and
spoke of tokenism. He recognise that media and social
construct portrays radical stereotypes within the BME
community.
He fought against the label created by professional
“perceived dangerousness of black men” which allows
professionals to use their bias, subjected views to arrest or
section a person.

14. • This creates unjustified labels and led to mis- diagnoses
and inappropriate sectioning under the Mental Health Act
and lengthy prison sentences.
• Fernando refused to accept his OBE 2007 in protest of
this label. He reported that some politician are fearful of
highlighting these damaging statistics for fear of being
accused by right wing of pandering to black peoples
needs.
• Lastly, Transcultural Psychiatry looked into the
inappropriateness of applying western disorders to
different cultural and ethnic groups, without fully
understanding ethnic and cultural difference.

15. References
Department for Communities and Local Government,
(2009).Progress report on Gypsy and Traveller policy. London,
Department for Communities and Local Government
Dr Howarth. C, (2006) Towards a social psychology of community, A
social representative presentation
Ethnicity and health London, Parliamentary Office of Science and
Technology, (2007), p. 1.
Institute of Race Relations, (2016) Equality and Human rights
commission

16. Greater London Authority, (2009). The London Health Inequalities
Strategy: draft for public consultation (London, Greater London
authority
Health and Social Care Act 2008
Regulated Activities, Care Quality Commission
Regulations (2014), Regulation 18
Statistic from institute of race relations (2016) Institute of Race
Relations
Surette, R. (2007). Media, crime, and criminal justice: images,
realities, and policies (3rd ed.). (pp. 31-56). Belmont: Thomson.