World Mental Health Day: ‘Tone deaf’ Piers Morgan sparks backlash over calls to scrap phrase ‘mental health’

The Good Morning Britain presenter claimed there is a “lack of training to be resilient” in schools
Outrage: Piers Morgan on Good Morning Britain
S Meddle/ITV/Rex
Emma Powell10 October 2018
The Weekender

Sign up to our free weekly newsletter for exclusive competitions, offers and theatre ticket deals

I would like to be emailed about offers, event and updates from Evening Standard. Read our privacy notice.

Piers Morgan came under fire online after he called for a mental health overhaul, saying the phrase should be scrapped in favour of “mental strength”.

The TV presenter, 53, was accused of “alienating” those who are suffering from mental health issues after claiming there is too much “mollycoddling” in schools and a “lack of training to be resilient”.

Speaking on Good Morning Britain he said: “I don’t want to say things that sound inflammatory for the sake of it. Mental strength might be a nice way of attacking this. Rather than it being ‘health’ and people thinking doctors and medicine but you actually encourage kids to develop mental strength when they’re dealing with regular life stuff.

“I’m not talking about serious things – clearly some people have genuine problems that need to be dealt with and treated, but some people have this anxiety and it seems to me there’s this lack of training to be resilient.”

He later tweeted his thoughts, posting: “I think it’s time to change the language on ‘mental health’. Let’s start using the phrase ‘mental strength’, and teach our kids the power of resilience.”

The post caused outrage with many accusing him of assuming those suffering with mental health issues are “weak”. Others branded him “tone deaf”.

One user tweeted: “Let's just leave it as mental health. Just as we have physical health. We don't tell people with cancer they are not strong so let's not use the word strong in terms of mental health.”

Another posted: “That’s pretty tone deaf even for you. Are you saying those who have mental health issues are somehow weaker?Not helpful to those who are suffering at all.”

A third sarcastic post read: “Let’s do the same for cancer patients. Just tell them to be strong and get over it. And those Soldiers going to @CombatStress - go and tell them to be strong too.”

Others agreed, saying his comments were “spot on” while some suggested using the term “mental fitness".

Morgan debated the issue with Health Secretary Michael Hancock on Wednesday morning’s breakfast show as they discussed new plans for pupils in primary and secondary schools to receive routine mental health checks.

Morgan said: “Are we losing the ability to simply deal with life stuff? Don’t mollycoddle too much. What worries me is everyday there is a news story which promotes 'come here is everything OK' rather than ‘right, life is tough and here’s how we’re going to prepare you for it'. If it’s serious, different thing.”

Good Morning Britain is on ITV, weekdays at 6am

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in