Goodbye Jason….

Posted on October 23, 2006 in Festivals Stigma

It’s that time of year….

With the Halloween season under way, mental health advocates have a simple request:

Scare people with ghouls and goblins. Fill your haunted house with trap doors and tombstones. But leave out the “psychiatric wards,” the “insane asylums” and the bloodthirsty killers in straitjackets.

Such themes, which have become as much a part of Halloween as pumpkins, reinforce negative stereotypes and a stigma that discourages people from seeking treatment, say activists who wage a yearly fight to remove the images from holiday events.

For a truly horrific touch, a model of the White House might be a fine substitute. The sane can be unnerving.

How about ending those annual showings of Halloween and Texas Chainsaw Massacre, too?