Case 11.1 Silence, Stigma, and Mental Illness<\/p>\n
Madeline Halpert and Eva Rosenfeld had three things in common: They were on the high school newspaper staff, they both suffered from depression, and until they shared their experiences with each other, both felt the isolation of the stigma that comes with suffering from mental illness.<\/p>\n
The two student editors knew they were far from the only ones in their high school who experienced these challenges and, in a concerted effort to support others and lessen the stigma of mental illness, decided to write an in-depth feature on the topic for their student newspaper. Recent cases of school shootings had brought mental illness in teens to the forefront, and evidence shows that depression is a major cause of suicide in young people. Yet, the strong stigma that surrounds depression and mental illness often isolates those who suffer from it. The purpose of Eva and Madeline\u2019s feature was to open the dialogue and end the stigma. They interviewed a number of teens from schools in the surrounding area who agreed to use their real names and share their personal stories about mental illness, including depression, eating disorders, and homelessness. The student editors even obtained waivers from the subjects\u2019 parents giving them permission to use the stories. However, their stories never made it to print.<\/p>\n
While they were putting the story together, their school\u2019s principal called them into her office and told them about a former college football player from the area who struggled with depression and would be willing to be interviewed. The editors declined, not wanting to replace the deeply personal articles about their peers with one from someone removed from the students. The principal then told them she wouldn\u2019t support printing the stories. She objected to the use of students\u2019 real names, saying she feared potential personal repercussions such as bullying or further mental health problems that publishing such an article could have for those students. District officials stood by the principal\u2019s decision to halt printing of the piece, saying it was the right one to protect the students featured in the article.<\/p>\n
This move surprised the two student editors because they felt that their school had a very tolerant atmosphere, which included offering a depression awareness group. \u201cWe were surprised that the administration and the adults who advocated for mental health awareness were the ones standing in the way of it,\u201d they wrote. \u201cBy telling us that students could not talk openly about their struggles, they reinforced the very stigma we were trying to eliminate.\u201d<\/p>\n
Instead, the two editors penned an op-ed piece, \u201cDepressed, but Not Ashamed,\u201d which was published in the\u00a0New York Times. The article discussed their dismay with having the articles halted by school administrators, an act that they believe further stigmatized those with mental illnesses.<\/p>\n
\u201cBy interviewing these teenagers for our newspaper, we tried\u2014and failed\u2014to start small in the fight against stigma. Unfortunately, we\u2019ve learned this won\u2019t be easy. It seems that those who are charged with advocating for our well-being aren\u2019t ready yet to let us have an open and honest dialogue about depression,\u201d they wrote.<\/p>\n
The op-ed piece generated a response\u2014and, interestingly, a dialogue\u2014about the topic.<\/p>\n
The two student editors were subsequently interviewed on the National Public Radio show\u00a0Weekend Edition(2014). In that interview, the editors acknowledged that they had experienced mostly positive reactions to their piece, with more than 200 comments after the initial publication. Many of those comments said the article resonated with readers and gave them the courage to talk to someone about their struggles with mental illness in a way they hadn\u2019t before.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd I think, most importantly, it\u2019s opening a dialogue,\u201d said one of the editors in the interview. \u201cThere were negative comments. There were positive comments. But the most important thing is that it\u2019s so amazing to see people discussing this and finally opening up about it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Questions<\/p>\n
How do you define the problem the editors were trying to address? Was this a\u00a0technical\u00a0or an\u00a0adaptivechallenge?<\/p>\n
What is your reaction to what the principal did in this situation? How do you think what she did fits in with\u00a0providing direction, protection, orientation, conflict management, and productive norms?<\/p>\n
Describe the\u00a0holding environment\u00a0in this case. Was the holding environment sufficient to meet the adaptive challenges in this situation? How would you improve it?<\/p>\n
Based on\u00a0Figure 11.1, discuss who were the adaptive leaders in this case. Which of the leader behaviors (get on the balcony, identify adaptive challenges, regulate distress, etc.) did these leaders exhibit?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Case 11.1 Silence, Stigma, and Mental Illness Madeline Halpert and Eva Rosenfeld had three things in common: They were on the high school newspaper staff, they both suffered from depression, and until they shared their experiences with each other, both felt the isolation of the stigma that comes with suffering from mental illness. The two […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[10],"class_list":["post-93902","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-research-paper-writing","tag-writing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/papersspot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93902","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/papersspot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/papersspot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/papersspot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/papersspot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=93902"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/papersspot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93902\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/papersspot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93902"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/papersspot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93902"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/papersspot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93902"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}