Rob Whitley

McGill University | McGill · Department of Psychiatry

Traditionally, men’s mental health woes have been attributed to male stubbornness and rigid notions of masculinity. However, there is growing recognition that mental health issues in men are socially determined by a range of factors including family, educational, occupational, and legal issues. These and a variety of other social issues have been c...

LAY SUMMARY The media can shape the opinions, beliefs, and attitudes of the public toward Veterans and Veteran issues and can also be a vital source of information for Veterans and their families. Accordingly, the authors used social science methods to collect, read, and analyze the tone and content of Canadian media coverage of Veteran transition...

Background The media portrayal of mental health is relevant in shaping the population’s attitudes towards mental disorders. However, there is little information about the representation of young mental health issues in the Spanish-language press, especially in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. The general objective of this study was to analyse...

LAY SUMMARY The media can shape the opinions, beliefs, and attitudes of the public toward Veterans and Veteran issues and can also be a vital source of information for Veterans and their families. As such, the authors used social science methods to collect, read, and analyze the tone and content of Canadian media coverage of Veteran transition from...

PurposeThe COVID-19 pandemic led to concerns about increases in suicidal behaviour. Research indicates that certain types of media coverage of suicide may help reduce suicidality (the Papageno effect), while other types may increase suicidality (the Werther effect). This study aimed to examine the tone and content of Canadian news articles about su...

This study compares the coverage of different mental illnesses in the Canadian news media over a 3-month sample period. Articles were coded for tone and content characteristics, and variations across mental illness categories were assessed with frequency counts and chi-squared tests. Articles about common mental disorders (depression/anxiety) showe...

Background Recovery Colleges are a relatively recent initiative within mental health services. The first opened in 2009 in London and since then numbers have grown. They are based on principles of personal recovery in mental health, co-production between people with lived experience of mental health problems and professionals, and adult learning. S...

Background A large corpus of research indicates that the media plays a key role in shaping public beliefs, opinions and attitudes towards social groups. Some research from the United States indicates that military Veterans are sometimes framed in a stereotypical and stigmatizing manner, however there is a lack of research on Canadian media coverage...

Concerns have been raised about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on individuals with lived experience of nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI). Yet, few efforts have explored this. Accordingly, using a mixed-methods approach, we sought to examine whether emerging adults who have self-injured experienced changes in NSSI urges and behavior during the pan...

Men experience elevated rates of various mental health issues including suicide, substance use disorder and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, as well as lower rates of mental health service utilization. Moreover, men and boys are experiencing increasing difficulties in sectors such as education and employment, with increased risk of low edu...

A large corpus of epidemiological research indicates a differential prevalence of depression by gender, with men experiencing depression at about half the rate of women. On the one hand, some researchers have argued that this is a true difference, with men more resilient to depression due to adaptive coping mechanisms and protective psychological o...

Less than 50% of people with a mental illness use formal mental health services, with service-utilization rates significantly lower in men compared with women, even when controlling for the presence of mental disorder. This underutilization has typically been attributed to harmful masculine norms that lead to a dysfunctional silence and stubbornnes...

Men account for approximately 75% of suicides in the western world, with male suicide rates particularly pronounced in certain groups of men, including: (i) middle-aged men; (ii) men living in rural and remote regions; (iii) White men; (iv) Indigenous men; (v) military veterans; and (vi) men involved in the criminal justice system. The reasons for...

Evidence suggests that boys are performing significantly worse than girls at all levels of education. First, boys tend to have high rates of school dropout, detention, and exclusion in primary and secondary school. Second, males tend to perform worse than females in basic literacy tests, high-school exams, and other common measures of educational a...

Men have elevated rates of addictions, substance abuse and substance use disorder, with a M:F ratio of around 2.5:1. Men also tend to have more severe symptoms, an earlier age of onset, as well as older age of remission. This chapter discusses the basic epidemiology, social determinants and psychosocial sequalae of substance abuse and addictions, w...

Unemployment, precarious employment, and job stress/strain are all risk factors for adverse mental health outcomes including depression, substance abuse, and suicide. These risk factors appear to have a stronger impact on the mental health of men than women. Evidence suggests that this gender differential may be due to three factors. First, men typ...

Evidence suggests that boys have a much higher prevalence of ADHD than girls at a rate of around 3:1, with rates of ADHD rising steadily in recent decades, especially in the USA. Several risk factors for ADHD in boys have been identified including: (i) middle-childhood age; (ii) childhood maltreatment and abuse; (iii) low family income; (iv) low pa...

The data marshaled throughout this book points toward a need for a paradigm shift in the field of men’s mental health. This must involve moving away from tired and cliched monocausal explanations that men’s mental health woes are caused by factors such as “toxic masculinity” or men’s supposed emotional illiteracy. Instead, we must move toward a mor...

The category of single men is an umbrella term including men who are never married, widowed, separated, or divorced. Research indicates that single men have more mental health issues than married men, but that divorced and separated men are at the highest risk of adverse mental health outcomes including suicide, substance use disorder, and depressi...

Research has indicated that negative media portrayals of people with mental illness can perpetuate stigma, suspicion, prejudice, social distance, and fear of people with mental illness. Three types of interventions can mitigate these portrayals, including education for journalism students, online education programs, and reporting guidelines for med...

Stigma associated with non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI), the deliberate damage of one’s body tissue for non-lethal reasons, is highly complex, far-reaching, and can have profound effects (e.g., shame, low self-esteem, thwarted help-seeking) on individuals with lived experience of NSSI. In concert with calls for greater inclusion of people with lived...

Background: University students are reporting concerning levels of mental health distress and challenges. University mental health service provider (MHSP) initiatives have been shown to be effective in supporting students' mental health; but these services are often resource-intensive. Consequently, new approaches to service delivery such as onlin...

LAY SUMMARY The media can shape the opinions, beliefs, and attitudes of the public towards Veterans, Veterans’ issues, and Veteran suicide. Given the Lionel Desmond murder-suicide was covered extensively in Canadian media, the authors read and analyzed the tone and content of Canadian newspaper coverage of this incident, using social science method...

Purpose There is international evidence supporting an association between sensational reporting of suicide and a subsequent increase in local suicide rates, particularly where reporting the death of a celebrity. We aimed to explore whether the observed increase in suicides in the United States, Canada and Australia in the 5 months following the 201...

Background: The mass media are relevant in shaping the population’s attitudes towards mental disorders. In low- and middle-income countries there is little information about the portrayal of people with mental disorders in the mass media. Aim: The general objective of the study was to assess the tone and content of Chilean newspaper articles about...

PRISM (Projet Ré affiliation Itinérance Santé Mentale-mental health and homelessness reaf-filiation project), is a new shelter-based mental health service in Montreal, Canada. It offers short-term residential services in a shelter with the aim of housing and connecting the person to the appropriate services in the community. This qualitative resear...

Objective This study aims to examine routine day-to-day suicide reporting in the Canadian media, giving a descriptive overview of the tone and content of news articles. The primary objective is to assess adherence to responsible reporting of suicide recommendations in news articles about suicide. A secondary objective is to categorize these article...

Numerous commentators have noted a historic ambivalence between religion and psychiatry. However, a growing body of evidence indicates an association between mental health and various religious activities, both private and public. As such, there are growing calls for greater religious sensitivity among mental health clinicians, to help unlock the p...

Objective: The overall aim of the present paper is to elicit the subjective perceptions and experiences of people with Severe Mental Illness (SMI) involved in a Participatory Video project, with a focus on self-reported impact on recovery. There are 2 subobjectives, namely (a) to document which specific aspects (if any) of Participatory Video proj...

In the last decade, a cross-national community of like-minded young men has emerged, commonly known as ‘the seduction community’. This community is led by professional ‘pick-up artists’ who teach these young men a variety of techniques and mindsets with the stated aim of improving their success with women, or ‘game’. There has been little research...

Background: Evidence suggests that stigma against people with mental illness remains high. This demands innovative approaches to reduce stigma. One innovative stigma reduction method is participatory video (PV), whereby marginalized people come together to script, film and produce bottom-up educational videos about shared issues. These videos are...

Music is known to evoke a sense of social identity in youth; however, few studies have examined the cultural role of music in the formation of ethnic identity in young people. The objective of this research was to examine—across 2 studies—the potential impact of musical ethnocultural identity on increasing happiness and reducing internalizing sympt...

Background: Evidence suggests that suicide mortality increases after high-profile suicide deaths. Indeed, suicide in the United States increased disproportionately after the suicide by suffocation of well-known comedian Robin Williams in August 2014. Such increases are often attributed to irresponsible media coverage of the suicide contributing to...

Evidence suggests that suicide rates can increase following the suicide of a prominent celebrity or peer, sometimes known as ‘suicide contagion’. The risk of contagion is especially high when media coverage is detailed and sensational. A recent study reported a 10% increase in U.S. suicides in the months following the suicide of comedian Robin Will...

List of newspapers included in the sample. (DOCX)

List of newspaper articles included in sample. (DOCX)

Excel spreadsheet. (XLSX)

Formalized codebook used to operationalize the mindset guidelines. (DOCX)

Background: Evidence suggests that mainstream media coverage of mental illness tends to focus on factors such as crime and violence. Thus, mental health advocates have argued that alternative portrayals are necessary to reduce stigma. Aim: The aim of this paper is to compare the tone and content of mainstream TV coverage of mental illness with educ...

Objective: To describe facilitators, barriers, and strategies to implementation of the Canadian national At Work/Au travail program. This program funded supported employment services, following some of the principles of the Individual Placement and Support (IPS) model, in 12 sites across Canada. Method: We conducted on-site individual interviews...

This paper examines the role of culture and place in recovery from severe mental illness amongst a group of Québécois living in Montreal, Canada. Results indicate that dominant cultural characteristics of Québécois, such as a marked Roman Catholic heritage, use of the French language and a close affiliation with the natural territory of Québec can...

Refugee men face unique mental health stressors in the pre- and post-migratory periods. However, there has been little in-depth research on the mental health of refugee men in Canada. Given this situation, the overall aim of this study is to explore the psycho-social experience of Sri Lankan Tamil refugee men in Canada. Particular objectives includ...

This chapter charts the contributions of anthropology to public mental health. It examines three main traditions in anthropological practice: (i) individual-level approaches, investigating mental health beliefs, behaviours, and illness narratives; (ii) meso-level approaches, assessing the provision, nature, and practice of mental health care system...

Background: Evidence suggests that the media can influence societal attitudes and beliefs to various social issues. This influence is especially strong for mental health issues, particularly suicide. As such, the aim of this study is to systematically examine Canadian newspaper coverage of the popular fictional Netflix series 13 Reasons Why, where...

Numerous scholars have stated that there is a silent crisis in men’s mental health. In this article, we aim to provide an overview of core issues in the field of men’s mental health, including a discussion of key social determinants as well as implications for mental health services. Firstly, we review the basic epidemiology of mental disorders wit...

Objective: The not criminally responsible on account of mental disorder (NCRMD) designation remains widely misunderstood by the public. Such misunderstandings may also be reflected in the media. As such, the aim of this study is to conduct a preliminary examination of the tone and content of recent Canadian newspaper articles where NCRMD is a majo...

There is an abundance of published literature documenting the important role of primary care in the recognition, treatment and management of mental disorders. Despite this, general practitioners, nurses, social workers, occupational therapists, physiotherapists, and other primary health care professionals remain under acknowledged, and the multidis...

Mental illnesses continue to gain awareness as a global health problem. Within this international context, Canada has also paid closer attention to mental illnesses and their related stigma. The Mental Health Commission of Canada was formed in 2007 as a federal government initiative to be a catalyst for improving the mental health system. Since the...

The aim of this study is to assess television news coverage of mental illness in Canadian media, including change over time. Data consist of news clips mentioning terms including ‘mental illness’ (N = 579). These were systematically collected and coded over 3 years (2013–2015) using a media retrieval software. Trend analysis indicated a significant...

Objective: To examine variations between immigrants and nonimmigrants in 1) prevalence of common mental disorders and other mental health variables; 2) health service utilisation for emotional problems, mental disorders, and addictions, and 3) health service satisfaction. Methods: This article is based on a longitudinal cohort study conducted fr...

Objectives: The overarching aim of this article is to assess media portrayals of mental illness in Canada. We hypothesise that portrayals have improved over time, related to the various antistigma activities of organisations such as the Mental Health Commission of Canada (MHCC). Specific objectives are to assess 1) overall tone and content of news...

Objective: Mindset is a short recently-published booklet funded by the Mental Health Commission of Canada outlining evidence-based guidelines and best practices for journalists writing about mental health and suicide. Our study aimed to assess fidelity to Mindset recommendations in Canadian newspaper reports of a recent celebrity suicide. A second...

This mixed-method study assessed the relationship between the content in news articles about mental health and illness and the reading and sharing of this content by the news audience. It used Web analytics from three major Canadian news sites. Regression analysis indicated a tendency for social media users to share news about mental health and ill...

Objective: The overall aim of this article is to examine the self-defined role of romantic relationships, intimacy and sexuality in recovery from severe mental illness. Method: Semistructured interviews were conducted with 35 people with severe mental illness, accompanied by participant observation. Data were analyzed using thematic analysis. R...

Objective: Purpose-driven studies examining the relationship between ethnicity, culture, and recovery are absent from the empirical literature. As such, the overall aim of this study was to examine ethno-racial variations in recovery perspectives. Specific objectives consist of comparing and contrasting ethno-racial variations in 1) definitions of...

For the past 3 decades, mental health practitioners have increasingly adopted aspects and tools of strength-based approaches. Providing strength-based intervention and amplifying strengths relies heavily on effective interpersonal processes. Aim: This article is a critical review of research regarding the use of strength-based approaches in mental...

Background: Vignettes are often used in psychiatric research, yet there are few systematic studies on their content, creation, and use. Aims: This article describes a study of: (a) how researchers create vignettes in research on schizophrenia and (b) how these vignettes portray individuals with schizophrenia. Method: We conducted a systematic...

Governments across the English-speaking world have stated that mental health services for people with severe mental illness (SMI) must focus on the redefined notion of recovery.1 In what has become the seminal definition, Anthony states that: ‘Recovery … is a way of living a satisfying, hopeful, and contributing life. Recovery involves the developm...

This paper introduces, describes and analyses the emerging concept of Global Mental Health (GMH). The birth of GMH can be traced to London, 2007, with the publication of a series of high-profile papers in The Lancet . Since then, GMH has developed into a movement with proponents, adherents, opponents, an ideology and core activities. The stated aim...

The developing literature on supported employment for people who have a mental illness and recent history of homelessness has yet to explore the relationship between clients and their employment specialists. The objective of the present article is to explore and understand the way in which service users experience supported employment services and...

Differences in transatlantic perception of psychosis have been reported in the historical psychiatric literature. This study aims to determine if articles in the American Journal of Psychiatry (AJP) are more likely to attribute biological factors to the etiology of psychosis than those of the British Journal of Psychiatry (BJP). A systematic MEDLIN...

The aim of this study was to investigate the perceived influence of family on recovery from severe mental illness. 54 semi-structured interviews were conducted with a diverse sample of people with severe mental illness living in Montreal. Results indicated that family both facilitated and impeded recovery processes. Specifically, family facilitated...

Causal attributions are a key factor in explanatory models of illness; however, little research on causal attributions of mental illness has been conducted in developing nations in the Caribbean, including Jamaica. Explanatory models of mental illness may be important in understanding illness experience and be a crucial factor in mental health serv...

To summarize the background and rationale of the approach taken by the Mental Health Commission of Canada's Opening Minds (OM) Anti-Stigma Initiative. The approach taken by OM incorporates a grassroots, community development philosophy, has clearly defined target groups, uses contact-based education as the central organizing element across interven...

To summarize the ongoing activities of the Opening Minds (OM) Anti-Stigma Initiative of the Mental Health Commission of Canada regarding the 4 groups targeted (youth, health care providers, media, and workplaces), highlight some of the key methodological challenges, and review lessons learned. The approach used by OM is rooted in community developm...

Objectives: To explore the use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) for infertility in a multicultural healthcare setting and to compare Western and non-Western infertility patients' reasons for using CAM and the meanings they attribute to CAM use. Design: Qualitative semi-structured interviews using thematic analysis. Settings/locat...

Religiosity is a prominent feature of the Geschwind syndrome, a behavioural pattern found in some cases of temporal lobe epilepsy. Since the 1950s, when Wilder Penfield induced spiritual feelings by experimental manipulation of the temporal lobes, development of brain imaging technology has revealed neural correlates of intense emotional states, sp...

The current supremacy of the 'bio-bio-bio' model within the discipline of psychiatry has progressively marginalized social science approaches to mental health. This situation begs the question, what role is there for the anthropology of mental health? In this essay, I contend that there are three essential roles for the anthropology of mental healt...

Purpose: The 'chivalry hypothesis' posits that woman are treated more compassionately by the media when compared with men. To our knowledge, no research study has explored the chivalry hypothesis as applied to people with mental illness. As such, we set out to compare three types of newspaper articles, those that focus on (1) mental illness generi...

The present study examined whether public funding for in vitro fertilization (IVF) in Quebec, Canada was associated with differential access among Canadian-born infertility patients and those born outside of Canada. Anonymous demographic questionnaires were completed at 3 time points: 2 weeks before the implementation of public funding, 2 weeks aft...

The notion of recovery has been embraced by key stakeholders across Canada and elsewhere. This has led to a proliferation of definitions, models, and research on recovery, making it vitally important to examine the data to disentangle the evidence from the rhetoric. In this paper, first we ask, what do people living with severe mental illness (SMI)...

Background: The rate of unemployment among homeless people is estimated to exceed 80%. A high prevalence of mental illness partially explains this figure, but few studies about the relationship between employment and homelessness have focused on homeless people with mental illness. Aim: The present study explores the self-reported barriers to em...

Evidence suggests that people with a severe mental illness still suffer high levels of stigma and discrimination. However little is known about how people with a severe mental illness manage such stigma. As such, the overall aim of this study is to document and analyze behavioral and psychological strategies of stigma management and control in a sa...

Infertility and its treatment is the subject of considerable media coverage. In order to evaluate the representation of assisted reproductive technology (ART) in the popular media, we conducted a content analysis of North American newspaper articles. We also explored whether different themes emerged in relation to the implementation of public fundi...

Topic: In the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson stated that citizens of the new republic had fundamental and inalienable rights to "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." Purpose: The purpose of this article is to reframe inequities experienced by people living with severe mental illnesses in terms of violations of Jeffersonian...

An understanding of recovery as a personal and subjective experience has emerged within mental health systems. This meaning of recovery now underpins mental health policy in many countries. Developing a focus on this type of recovery will involve transformation within mental health systems. Human systems do not easily transform. In this paper, we i...

Little anthropological research has been conducted on the health care perspectives of homeless people in rural areas. The aim of the present study is to elicit health-care beliefs, and examine overall health experience among a sample of current or recently homeless people in rural New Hampshire. Thirteen qualitative interviews were conducted, 11 wi...

Objectives: Recovery from mental disorders encompasses multiple interrelated dimensions. This study used photovoice to explore how individuals with serious mental illness and a history of substance abuse and homelessness envisioned their recovery. A dimensional recovery model was applied to examine how the interrelationships between recovery dimen...

This paper examines a federally funded research and training collaboration between an Ivy League psychiatric research center and a historically Black university and medical center. This collaboration focuses on issues of psychiatric recovery and rehabilitation among African Americans. In addition, this multidisciplinary collaboration aims to build...

Objective: Lack of exercise is a risk factor for various negative health outcomes. Some research suggests people with severe mental illnesses are less likely to engage in exercise than the general population. The purpose of this report is to document, analyze, and understand self-identified barriers to exercise that may be especially specific to p...

Objectives: Much research suggests that the general public relies on the popular media as a primary source of information about mental illness. We assessed the broad content of articles relating to mental illness in major Canadian newspapers over a 6-year period. We also sought to assess if such content has changed over time. Methods: We conduct...

Introduction: Stigma and discrimination against individuals living with serious mental illness (SMI) result in decreased life opportunities, loss of independent functioning, and can have negative consequences for personal relationships, education, employment, and stable housing. Recovery centers are physical entities offering services and resources...

Background: Much research suggests that the general public relies on the popular media as its main source of information about mental illness. Assessing media representations of people with mental illness is vitally important, given that research suggests that the media exerts a strong, often negative, influence on public attitudes. Aims: Few sp...

Objective: "Creating Communities" is a study that examines the influence of stable housing on recovery within intentional communities of people living with severe mental illnesses in Washington, DC. We label these configurations "recovery communities" (RCs). The authors aim to identify features of the contextual environment of RCs that contribute...