For Creative Media

1. Audience Research
Scott Harrand

2. Gender
 Of my respondents, the overwhelming majority were female,
with 77.08% of the survey takers identifying themselves as
female. Only 20.83% were male, and only 2.08% identified as
another gender, which accounted for only 1 respondent. This
means that the vast majority of my data came from women,
which may not effect the data too much, as mental health
issues can have impacts on the lives of anyone regardless
their gender. However, as people are often socialized
throughout their lives differently depending on their gender,
there may some difference between how people of different
genders view mental health issues.

3. Age
 Incidentally, it seems that the age categories that had the most
respondents were the age categories at the younger and the older
end of the spectrum. The majority of respondents were between
the ages of 15 and 19, with this group amounting to 41.67% of
respondents. While it was still a smaller percentage, the second
largest age group of respondents was people who were 51 or
over, which added up to a total of 18.75%. While the rest were
considerably smaller percentages, there was still respondents in
all of the age categories except for 36-40 and 14 or under, in
which there were no survey takers. This means there is a fairly
large range of ages, and therefore a wider spectrum of opinions
and viewpoints, as people born at different times, into different
worlds, who had gone through vastly different experiences, are
likely to have different opinions and beliefs.

4. “Have you ever been diagnosed with any
form of mental illness?”
 While the majority of the respondents to this question said they
had not been diagnosed with a mental illness (58.33% having
responded “No”), there was still a considerably large chunk of the
survey takers that said they had been diagnosed with some form
of mental illness. 37.50% of the respondents answered “Yes”, as
well as an additional 4.17% that opted that they would prefer not
to say. While not the majority of the respondents, this is still a
considerably large group of people, and certainly enough to
display the scope of mental health issues and how many people
they can effect. This underlines the importance of the social action
cause I am working toward, as it is raising awareness of an issue
that effects such a large amount of people.

5. “Do you know someone that has been affected
by any form of mental illness?”
 An overwhelming majority of the survey takers (93.75% of the
respondents) responded with “Yes”, signifying that they did
know someone who had been affected by mental illness, with
a further 2.08% saying they were “Uncertain”, meaning the true
percentage could be even higher. This statistic certainly drives
home the widespread nature of mental health issues, with
almost the entirety of the respondents saying they knew at
least one person that had been affected by a form of mental
illness. This continues to drive home the importance of the
campaign, to raise greater discussion and awareness of
mental health, an issue that affects so many people and yet is
so rarely discussed.

6. “Have you ever believed you may have
any form of mental illness?”
 Exactly half the respondents gave the same answer to this
question, with exactly 50% saying, “Yes”, suggesting they had at
some point or another thought they may have a mental illness.
The other half of the survey takers were split up in their answers,
with 33.33% answering “No”, 14.58% saying they were
“Uncertain”, and 2.08% indicating they “Would prefer not to say.”.
These results suggest that mental health is certainly a concern for
many people, and they are often thinking about it when
considering their own mental health, but they may not be as
aware about mental health on a wide scale. These results also
show the importance of talking about mental health, and removing
the stigma attached to it, considering so many people have
worried about it for themselves.

7. “Do you think there is a high or a low rate
of mental illness in the UK?”
 The vast majority, 81.25% of the respondents, said that they
believed there was a high rate of mental illness in the UK.
12.50%, the second largest percentage, said they were
uncertain, and only 6.25% said they believed there was a low
rate. This would suggest that the vast majority believe there is
a serious mental health issue in the country, a fact which only
serves to support the importance of creating campaigns about
the subject, as it is agreed that it is a critical issue.

8. “Do you think there is enough help for
people with mental illnesses?”
 While somewhat more divisive than the previous question, this
question still yielded a majority of survey takers responding with
the same answer, with 77.08% of respondents saying “No”, they
did not believe there was enough help for people with mental
illnesses. A further 12.50% were uncertain whether there was
enough help for those with mental illnesses, and only 10.42%
believed there was a sufficient amount of help available. The
amount of people that believe there is a high rate of mental illness
with the UK, combined with the amount of people that believe
there isn’t enough help available to people suffering mental
illnesses, paints a bleak image about the state of the UK when it
comes to dealing with mental health issues and helping those that
are suffering from them.

9. “Do you think there is a high or low rate of self-
harm and suicide in the UK?”
 Following a similar trend in many of the questions, there was a vast
majority of respondents that gave the same answer to the question. With
70.83% of the respondents answering that they believed there was a
“High Rate”, there is a fairly noticeable majority opinion. However, there is
still a fairly sizeable chunk (22.92%) of the survey takers that were
uncertain if there was a high or low rate of self-harm and/or suicide in the
UK. Only 6.25% believed there was a “Low rate”. While the respondents
were more willing to answer in absolutes about more general mental
health topics, there is more hesitation to give a solid answer when it
comes to more specified topics of mental health, such as self-harm and
suicide, which may be much less discussed and talked about. It is
important that, in my campaign, I open up a dialogue and raise
awareness for less talked about aspects of mental health, and try to
remove stigma attached.

10. “Do you think many children in the UK
suffer some kind of mental illness?”
 Similarly to the previous results, there is still a noticeable majority,
but there is a certain amount of wavering confidence. While
64.58% of the respondents believe that, “Yes”, there are a lot of
children in the UK that suffer some kind of mental illness, and the
smaller amount of 8.33% that say no, there is also a fairly large
portion of 27.08% that are unsure. This seems to be the general
case for questions that dig into the more specific areas of mental
health and those who suffer from it. It may be that a large amount
of the population is aware that mental health issues are a
widespread problem that affect a great deal of people, it’s
important that they know the hard facts of the situation, and the
specifics of who is being affected and how so.

11. “Do you think many elderly people in the UK
suffer some kind of mental illness?”
 There was still a considerable majority of survey takers that responded
with “Yes” to this question, totaling in at 72.34%. Correspondingly, only a
small percentage of 8.51% answered with “No”, but a portion of the
respondents did opt to choose “Unsure”, with 19.15% of them having
chosen this option. While there is still a trend of larger chunks of
respondents being unsure or uncertain about more specific topics of
mental health, there is still a much larger chunk of the respondents that
believe that many elderly people in the UK do suffer some kind of mental
illness, a percentage higher than any of the other more specified, final
questions. This may be as a result of the widespread nature of dementia,
perhaps one of the better known mental illness as it effects so many
(generally) elderly people. However, this is not the only kind of mental
illness that can effect elderly people, and it is important to make people
aware that elderly people are just as susceptible to other kinds of mental
illnesses as anyone else, and should also be protected and given help to
get through them.