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SANE - Reporting Assistance

Reporting
Reporting Assistance
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 YOU want to take action

Research the discriminators exact address:
for example, corporations, publishers, media enterprises, individuals, organizations, television or radio stations, etc.

Manner of making contact with the discriminator:
Prepare your complaint in written form (as a letter, fax, or email) and send a copy to BASTA (with the request to publish on our website, if you so desire).


Contents:
Get straight to the point. Here are a few examples:

"I'm writing to you to complain that... on your show... on..., mentally ill people were portrayed as violent."

"...in you're article... in the... newspaper on..., people afflicted with schizophrenia were described as being split personalities."

Take special care, even if you are angry, to use be polite. Usually, discrimination is not intentional and is instead a sign of thoughtlessness or lack of awareness.

Arguments for validating your complaint:
  • Mental illness can affect anyone.

  • One in three people has, at some point in his/her life, mental problems.
  • Discrimination is - beyond the symptoms of the illness itself - the greatest burden for the mentally ill.
  • Studies have shown that the mentally ill are more likely to be victims of violence than to be the aggressors. The mentally ill are not more aggressive than other people.
  • Mental illnesses are treatable and permit the majority of the afflicted to live a comfortable and balanced life.
  • To depict Schizophrenia as 'split personality' is a cliché and stereotype that doesn't reflect the characteristics of the illness.

Politely ask journalists and media representatives, in future reports, to do well researched reporting and pay more attention to the appropriate use of psychological terminology.

Refer to our website www.openthedoors.de for more Information and state that a copy of your complaint has been sent to us.

Make it clear that you are expecting a reply specifically responding to the complaint.

For more ideas regarding clarification- or protest letters we recommend that you visit our SANE-Archive.

 
 
  © 2006 BASTA