Do you think that bipolar and other severe mental disorders are stigmatised by the media?
Extensively. In the northern territory of Australia, mental illness is probably the second greatest burden of disease behind cardiac disease and ahead of oncology, because we have a very young population. It’s probably about 13–14% of the burden of disease and we’re lucky to get 5% of the health budget. So you could say that in a very practical way that mental illness is highly stigmatised.
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