A campaign to revolutionise coverage of mental health issues is gathering pace as forces unite against the 'head clutcher' stock photo (above, Shutterstock) to illustrate fifty shades of mental anguish.

Plucked from an image bank, they are the last resort when no other photographs are available or the people involved in the story decline to be pictured.

But these images offend, stigmatise and stereotype, underscoring a general impression that mental health is something that leaves a person isolated and their head in a tightening vice. If every picture tells a story, these depict a remote landscape devoid of hope and understanding.