subject: Finding Help With Mental Illness Online [print this page] Most of us take for granted the ability to find what we want online Google is now not just a search engine, but the portal to the rest of the world and all it has to offer. However, if you couldnt find that pair of shoes or video game review online, it wouldnt be the end of the world but for some, finding information can be critical.
Mental health issues affect many more of us that people think. In the UK, one in four people have experienced mental illness in other countries in can be even higher. So the ability to find locally relevant and reliable information about schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and other mental illnesses is incredibly important, especially if you are the one being affected - or their wife, husband, parents or siblings. Chris Cox, Online Manager at Rethink - the leading severe mental illness charity in England explains how difficult it can be from a webmasters point of view.
People who have noticed a change in a loved ones behaviour often search for things like acting weird, behaving strangely, or use terms like mad or mental to describe mental illnesses like schizophrenia or bipolar disorder in a way that a mental illness charity like Rethink certainly wouldnt! Sometimes there are drugs involved, which can also make it hard to identify underlying mental illness. People may be searching for pot going mad or coke paranoia and we would want them to read our pages about drugs and mental health also called dual diagnosis but we may be using very different styles of language, so they may be hard to find online sometimes.
Chris also notes how hard it is for people to recognise these first signs of a serious problem, as many searches will find results that dont address that:
People notice the first outward signs of what might actually be symptoms of a more serious mental health issue, like anxiety, depression, physical wellbeing and so on. There are lots of search results for these words but very few of them relate to the possible connection between early warning signs like being withdrawn and isolated - with severe mental illnesses like schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, schizoaffective disorder, personality disorders and so on, which my charity Rethink might point out. Its important for people who are worried to get a good range of information, but sometimes the first page of results is not a reliable source.
So whats the solution? Google wont move pages up the rankings based on charity, or asking nicely! Its therefore really important for websites that focus on mental health to do the right things for search results keyword optimised pages with clear, contextual titles, links and so on. And find ways of using what people are searching for on a page, even if its not how things should officially be described. In this case, search engine optimisation (SEO) can save lives - or at least get people who are in distress and searching Google for going weird, acting strangely and so on with information about schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and other mental illnesses, that could be vitally relevant to their situation.
by: Rethink
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