Wellness Corner 27: Mental Health in Films

Hey Falcons,
Hope you all had fun at homecoming this weekend! This week’s topic is a unique one — entertainment. 

Film is an increasingly popular medium to foment education and discussion. But what's rather unfortunate is that there’s a dearth of depictions of mental health issues or any discussion of it in popular films. Research shows only 1.7% of characters in films up to 2016 were shown with a mental health condition. Though this figure is better, the 7% of characters in TV shows portrayed with mental health conditions still downplay the 20% of the U.S. population experiencing a mental health condition. Most mental health portrayals feature white (film=80%, TV=69%) male characters (film=60%, TV=54%). Few teenagers were shown with mental health conditions (film=7% or 6 characters, TV=6% or 5 characters). And only 1 LGBT character (white, male) featured a mental health condition across the 100 most popular movies of 2017. It’s time for us to call for more discussion about mental health issues in popular media. 

Here are some films that do it right. I’m a big fan of several of these, and Inside Out was the Wellness Committee’s movie night choice last year. If you get a chance, do take some time to watch a film from the list!

Stay well,

Eshaan