HBO to add mental health alerts before some programmes including The Sopranos and Euphoria

‘Viewer conversation is encouraged’, says network representative

Lead character of HBO's 'Girls' Hannah Horvarth suffers from OCD (HBO)

HBO wants people to talk about mental illness.

The network announced on Thursday a campaign to use its shows to increase awareness around mental health issues, highlighting characters’ struggles with conditions like depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder or substance abuse.

As part of the initiative, called “It’s OK,” some episodes of shows will begin with an alert identifying the mental health challenges faced in the program — “The following program contains depression,” for example. These notices will come as part of new series and will be added retroactively to existing shows, including “The Sopranos,” “Barry” and “Euphoria.” The alerts will end by encouraging anyone who needs help to contact the National Alliance on Mental Illness.

The network stressed that these are invitations, not warnings, to audiences.

“We are not saying ‘viewer discretion is advised,’” Jason Mulderig, HBO’s Vice President of Brand and Product Marketing, said in a statement. “We are saying ‘viewer conversation is encouraged.’”

The network will also release a series of videos called “Doctor Commentaries,” in which Dr Ali Mattu, a clinical psychologist, will discuss scenes focused on mental health issues. The first video in the series, released Thursday, explores Hannah Horvath, the main character of “Girls,” dealing with OCD.

“A lot of people say they have OCD, but let’s talk about what that actually means,” Dr Mattu says as the video cuts to Ms Horvath describing her symptoms. “The impairment here, the isolation, the difficulty to just get out of her bed and go about her day — very realistic example of what OCD can look like.”

Other shows have added advisories about mental health content, but those — like the alert before Netflix’s “The Politician,” for instance — have been about warning some viewers that they may not want to watch.

Netflix also added a warning to its series “13 Reasons Why,” which tells the story of a teenage girl who kills herself. A study published in April by the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry found that suicide rates jumped among boys aged 10 to 17 in the month after the series was released in 2017. Netflix removed the suicide scene in July.

The New York Times