Activists want haunted houses to skip asylums, 'psycho' killers

Posted | Contributed by Jeff

This Halloween, mental-health advocates have a simple request. Scare people with ghouls and goblins. Fill your haunted house with trap doors and tombstones. But leave out the "psychiatric wards," the "insane asylums" and the bloodthirsty killers in straitjackets. Such themes, which have become as much a part of Halloween as pumpkins, reinforce negative stereotypes and a stigma that discourages people from seeking treatment, say activists who wage a yearly fight to remove the images from holiday events.

Read more from The Chicago Tribune via The Star-Telegram.

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