Promoting Hope, Preventing Suicide

Research and advice on preventing teen and adult suicide.

by Elana Premack Sandler, L.C.S.W., M.P.H.

Elana Premack Sandler, LCSW, MPH, is a public health social worker specializing in violence and injury prevention and adolescent health promotion. See full bio

June 9, 2009, Media

Is “Mental” Making Psych. Look Bad?

Is treating patients as people "unorthodox?"

Dr. Greg House is a superstar. Well, really, Hugh Laurie is a superstar. The Fox series "House" is consistently in the top 20 most-watched Fox primetime shows, according to Nielsen ratings. Audiences seem to love the uncomfortable way that Dr. House can make them feel, and if the response to Dr. Lawrence Kutner's suicide is any indication, people feel very connected to the characters on the whole.

"Mental," a very new show starring Chris Vance as Dr. Jack Gallagher, was number three in the rankings of Fox shows watched the week of its premiere. "Mental" is on right after "House," so I ended up watching the premiere quite by accident. But happy accident it was, as I was immediately drawn in to the premise of the show. Dr. Gallagher, a newbie director of mental health services at a Los Angeles hospital, works with patients in what is viewed by his colleagues as an unorthodox way, really trying to meet them where they're at emotionally.

I, and apparently some others, as I found out by reading viewers' comments on Fox's website for "Mental," think Dr. Jack Gallagher is great. He treats his patients as people, individuals with histories and experiences that have brought them to where they are now, not just patients identified and treated based on their diagnoses.

It is a little sad to me, then, that Dr. Gallagher is presented as such an eccentric practitioner. I imagine that, over the course of the show, part of his job will be to teach the more "traditional" psychiatrists different ways of thinking about their work and their patients. But, in the meantime, what does this presentation say about the expectations and impressions the public has for and of mental health practitioners?