What influences our view of the World?

Our culture plays a big part on how we react to the World. People talk about our wiring.  If we are men, how we view women and vis a versa. We all have this thing called unconscious bias. If we are white, how we view people of colour and if we are from an ethnic group, how we view white privilege. So, our upbringing and cultural baggage can certainly influence our view of mental health.

However, I also think that outside influences play a big part.  We are being conditioned all the time by what we hear, see, and read. I teach a lot of disability awareness workshops. I find it interesting to see how societies attitude to disability has changed somewhat, whereas it is attitude to mental health has not.

 

 

Here in the UK, we have anti-discrimination legislation called, The Equality Act 2010

According to the Equality Act 2010, a Mental Health condition can be classified as a disability. For those of you that have done any disability awareness training, you will be familiar with the Social versus the Medical model of disability. 

The Medical Model of disability views disability as a ‘problem’ that belongs to the disabled individual.

So, if you take the example of a wheelchair user who cannot get into a building because of some steps, the medical model says that this is because of the wheelchair. The wheelchair is the problem and, therefore the person using the wheelchair is the problem.

The Social Model of disability, on the other hand, recognises the steps as the problem. It sees the steps as the disabling barrier because, perhaps, it is society that disables people through poor design and blinkered thinking.

So, if we apply “Social Model” thinking to Mental Health, perhaps we can start to get a more balanced view of mental health. Stop seeing the person as the problem and accepting that society, environment, working practices and attitudes and just life, in general, can contribute to poor mental health.  We should not be stigmatised because we have a mental illness any more than if we have a physical illness.