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The USA Network show "Monk" has won praise for its depiction of mental health. The show stars actor Tony Shalhoub, who plays the title character Adrian Monk, a detective who has Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.

Seeing a mental health professional still has a stigma attached to it, but two influences — television and religion — are slowly beginning to change people's attitudes.

"How mental health is depicted on television is big," said Dr. Bert Price, medical director of St. Bernards Behavioral Health in Jonesboro. "People will see something and it will make them think (about mental illness). Especially if it's an accurate depiction, a show like 'Monk,' which has a character with OCD (obsessive-compulsive disorder), will make a difference."

"Monk," which airs on the USA Network, features actor Tony Shalhoub portraying a former police detective with OCD named Adrian Monk, who is regularly seen in therapy.

"It's great," Price said. "It's a good show and people will see it and recognize things. It helps them."

"Monk" was one of several shows nationally honored last year by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMSHA), a part of the United States Department of Health and Human Services. Other shows include "ER" and "Scrubs." The 2006 awards have not yet been announced.

"The entertainment industry is a powerful vehicle for helping shape public opinion," said SAMHSA administrator Charles G. Curie. "Positive portrayals show the nation that people with mental health problems do live, learn, work and fully participate in the American community."

The flipside is negative portrayal of mental illness.

"You have people who have seen 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest' and they will think what they saw is accurate," Price said. "It isn't. But that's what some people still think of when they think of a mental hospital."

Price's facility in Jonesboro, a 60-bed acute care hospital located beside the campus of Arkansas State University, doesn't look like a movie set, just a hospital. Chris Gibson, who serves as director of referral development, said mental health is only one component for the facility.

"We have drug and alcohol counseling," Gibson said. "We do other things. Outpatient and inpatient. But we took out pediatrics, so no one under 18 now can be a patient. It is all adults. We have an employee assistance program. We keep busy."

Gibson said the facility, that serves a 17-county area and employs 87, will soon be added to the site rotation for UAMS and University of Tennessee in Memphis medical residents.



The Religious Aspect

How does religion impact mental illness?

"Pastors do more counseling in the United States than the entire membership of the American Psychological Association," said Dr. Harold Koenig, codirector of the Center for Spirituality, Theology and Health at Duke University Medical Center, at a conference in Little Rock. "Many pastors do not get the training in seminary in how to address these issues, particularly with the chronic mental health illnesses."

Koenig, also the founder and editor-in-chief of Science and Theology News, a monthly international newspaper, speaks to groups around the country to raise awareness of mental health in the religious community.

"The fact that it is happening on the state level here is really exciting to me," Koenig said. "We are facing a common problem; we don't have to working against each other. ... You have these two cultures that should be working together, but they are conflicted."

Part of the reason is the spiraling cost of healthcare in the United States.

"All the states are closing down mental health centers and making it harder and harder for people to afford mental healthcare," he said. "So what we're trying to do is engage the faith community, which has been doing it anyway. We've come around full circle and, in a way; we're being forced into it by economics."

The difference is that, "most people don't know the difference, that people don't equate seeing a pastor (with) seeing a counselor. But that is the role pastors have been filling for years."

Some religions, according to Koenig, have always been involved.

"The big players are the Catholic Charities, Lutheran Social Services and believe it or not, the Mennonites," he said. "There has been a movement among the evangelicals to be more involved, especially in the last 10 years."

Koenig partially attributed the trend to the popularity of Rick Warren's book, "The Purpose Driven Life," and its emphasis on counseling and working together.

"It's the small groups that are doing the caring," he said. "That's what the book emphasizes: small group sessions that meet and talk each week."

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