Introducing the Equally Well See Us campaign
People who experience mental health and addiction issues are two-to-three times more likely to die prematurely - because they have poorer access to health support and services, and consequently significantly poorer health outcomes. Many of these deaths are from preventable and treatable physical health problems.
People may not get the care they need, when some health professionals can’t see past those mental health issues, assuming that everything that happens in that person’s life is related to their mental health history.
This is called “diagnostic overshadowing” and ultimately can put a person off seeking help or care because of a lack of trust, which in turn may result in those poorer health outcomes.
The Equally Well Collaborative has launched the See Us activation campaign in Aotearoa (and also in Australia and the UK) to help correct this imbalance. It is designed to help reduce the risk of diagnostic overshadowing through raising awareness of it as an issue.
In short, the See Us campaign asks us to listen and trust that the person seeking care is telling the truth about the reasons they are there, and to look past the mental health component of their health history and see the person.
The Equally Well See Us team has produced three short videos - each with a real person telling their own story. These are not made up scenarios. They are people with lived experience of diagnostic overshadowing. In just under a minute, each story illustrates the issue far better than written words ever could. Towards the end of each message, we get to see the person - as well as the issue - more clearly.
Find out more about the Equally Well See Us campaign, including the real-life story videos.
Want to be involved? Then why not play an active part in resetting the balance by listening better, by trusting and by seeing the person.