Schizophrenia

I refer to the article The Institutionalised Begging Network by Lorna Vassallo (June 13). In this article, the role of the Prime Minister as being also the Minister of Finance was called a "schizophrenic role".

Schizophrenia is a serious mental illness and persons experiencing such an illness deserve dignity and respect. From our experience, with the necessary support, persons are able to find employment and develop satisfying social relationships and can therefore contribute to our society.

Associating terms such as "schizophrenic" with negative situations is bound to increase the already existing stigma which is so detrimental to people experiencing mental health problems and their families. As you may be aware, schizophrenia affects one per cent of the population. Therefore the negative use of the term schizophrenia can offend some 4,000 individuals and many more family members.

For the past 12 years, the Richmond Foundation has striven to push forward issues related to mental health and to decrease the stigma among the public. I think that situations, like the article mentioned, neutralise our efforts.

We would therefore be very grateful if the newspaper would help us to fight the stigma by not allowing the printing of articles and letters which reflect derogatory or negative images of persons experiencing mental illness. On behalf of persons experiencing mental illness and their families I would like to thank the paper for its cooperation.