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“The media have an important role they can play in helping the public to better understand mental health issues, to help them see that people with mental illnesses can lead productive lives when they get the right diagnosis and treatments, and to help reduce the stigma of being mentally ill and seeking out help for it.” – Actor John Noble at Picture This: Mental Health in Los Angeles.

Wow. As if I needed another reason to include you on my list of favorite actors, Mr. Noble.

John Noble (Denethor on The Two Towers and The Return of the King, and currently portraying Fringe‘s Dr. Walter Bishop, the most endearing “mad scientist” you’ll ever meet) sat on a media panel that presented at Picture This: Mental Health in Los Angeles. The event, which was geared toward bringing together “Southern California-based organizations that are stakeholders in the mental health arena to develop priorities for Los Angeles media outlets in covering mental health and mental illness issues,” was the combined effort of KTTV FOX 11, the Entertainment Industries Council and AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals and also featured congressional representatives and various mental health professionals.

Now, the mention of Big Pharma like AstraZeneca may have a few of you suspiciously cocking your eyebrows, but the event seemed to be focused more on discussing how the media can help bring awareness about mental illness and treatments than on which drugs we can take for which disorders (this is good, yes?).

Of course, Noble wasn’t the only participant with important things to say. Kevin Hale, KTTV FOX 11′s Vice President and General Manager, said of his station:

“We at FOX 11 are honored to play a role in helping to bring viewers consistent reporting of issues associated with mental health and mental illness. I’m proud of our news team for helping to raise awareness in our community and ensure that individuals know who they can turn to in order to get diagnosis and treatment for themselves, friends or family members.”

Seeing as how I live on the other side of the country, I don’t watch KTTV FOX 11; however, that doesn’t mean I (and everyone else) can’t grasp the power the station is trying to put to good use by teaming up with mental health professionals, celebrities and other public figures in order to create more awareness.

Hale did an excellent job of putting that power into perspective when, at the event, he recounted the story of a store owner who offered a small child a handful of candy. Rather than grabbing the candy, the little boy “pulled back” and acted shy, so the store owner dipped his own hand into the candy bowl and gave the little boy his own handful of candy. Later, the little boy’s mother asked him why he was shy about taking his own handful of candy, to which the boy replied, “Because his hands are bigger than mine.”

Smart kid.

Hale said when the media and the mental health professionals work together, they have “bigger hands,” and that’s very true. I’ve written about mental health awareness for the past few years, and spent one of those years organizing and leading my area’s NAMI support group, so, needless to say, I am a firm believer in grassroots advocacy. However, when you can combine the passion of mental health professionals and advocates with the power of the media, there’s no telling what success might come.

If you’d like to learn more, KTTV FOX 11 provides a video of the event on its Web site, as well as myths and facts about mental illness, information about stigmatizing terminology and resources on other related issues.

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    Last reviewed: 9 Feb 2009