Recently, John Oliver put out a video highlighting the current reality on mental health better than I’ve seen most who try. The added humour made the video entertaining and the stats shed light on a reality most aren’t aware of.
“And the aftermath of a mass shooting might be the worst time to talk about mental health, because for the record, the vast majority of mentally ill people are non-violent and the vast majority of gun violence is committed by non mentally ill people.
In fact, mentally ill people are far more likely to be the victims of violence rather than the perpetrators, so the fact we tend to only discuss mental health in a mass shootings context is deeply misleading.
But if now is our only opportunity to have a public discussion about mental health, then perhaps we should do it, because in 2013, an estimated 43.8 million American adults dealt with a mental illness and an estimated 10 million of us suffer from a serious mental illness each year.”
Watch the full video here [12 mins]:
Last Week Tonight with John Oliver [Mental Health]
What are your thoughts on this?
How can we raise the level of conversation on mental health in society?
Share your ideas in the comments and let’s do this!!
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