{"id":819415,"date":"2026-10-31T05:06:12","date_gmt":"2026-10-31T05:06:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/819415\/"},"modified":"2026-10-31T05:06:12","modified_gmt":"2026-10-31T05:06:12","slug":"bunnings-shelves-halloween-straitjackets-after-mental-health-group-criticism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/819415\/","title":{"rendered":"Bunnings shelves Halloween straitjackets after mental health group criticism"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bunnings has removed a straitjacket costume from its online marketplace as mental health advocates urge retailers to stop selling Halloween outfits that portray people with mental illness as “insane”.<\/p>\n

The costume, listed on Bunnings Marketplace, was a straitjacket with arm ties and the words “Property of the county mental institution \u2014 approach with caution!” printed on the back.<\/p>\n

SANE Australia, a non-profit organisation for people with complex mental health issues, said it was unacceptable for corporations to publicly support mental health causes while profiting from products that reinforce stigma.<\/p>\n

“The time has well and truly come for us to stop turning a blind eye to these kinds of tropes in the community,” CEO Rachel Green told ABC Victoria Statewide Drive.<\/p>\n

“You wouldn’t see people buying and wearing a cancer patient costume, for example. So why is a costume dressing up as someone with a mental illness considered acceptable?”\"A<\/p>\n

Rachel Green says it’s unacceptable for businesses to publicly support mental health while profiting from products that reinforce stigma. (Supplied: SANE Australia)<\/p>\n

Sandy Jeffs, a SANE ambassador and author who lives with schizophrenia and was a patient at Melbourne’s former Larundel Psychiatric Hospital, said the costumes were insulting and “downright mad-shaming”.<\/p>\n

“Halloween, it’s fun for people, but I suppose it’s when it goes to negative tropes like introducing straitjackets as a costume \u2014 it goes into a dark place,” she said.<\/p>\n

“They’re there to laugh at, to make fun of, to really demonise a whole cohort of people who don’t deserve to be demonised or to be laughed at and shamed.<\/p>\n

“We’re just ordinary people with a very extraordinary illness \u2026 dealing with the stigma that surrounds these conditions every day.”If you or anyone you know needs help:Suicide Call Back Service<\/a> on 1300 659 467Lifeline<\/a> on 13 11 14Headspace<\/a> on 1800 650 890<\/p>\n

When contacted by the ABC, a spokesperson for Bunnings said the item had since been removed from sale.<\/p>\n

“We understand the concerns raised, and once the listing was brought to our attention, it was removed from Bunnings Marketplace,” a spokesperson said.<\/p>\n

The same costume is available for sale at Kmart, which, like Bunnings, is owned by Wesfarmers, as well as at Dick Smith, Amazon and a number of smaller costume stores.<\/p>\n

The ABC has contacted Wesfarmers for comment.<\/p>\n

Not the first time<\/p>\n

It’s not the first time SANE has called out retailers for selling costumes it considers stigmatising.<\/p>\n

SANE said a social media campaign in 2024 prompted Big W to remove Halloween costumes from sale.<\/p>\n

Ms Green said Spotlight was among the retailers that quickly pulled the costume at the time, but had since made it available for sale again.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/p>\n

The costume remained available on the Spotlight website on Saturday. (Supplied: Spotlight)<\/p>\n

She said the costumes mattered for families dealing with serious mental illness.<\/p>\n

“It does matter for the family who’ve got a 25-year-old who’s got early signs of psychosis and is really struggling and needs to have that support wrapped around them,” Ms Green said.<\/p>\n

“How are they going to feel with people walking around on Saturday dressed in a costume that’s a caricature of a bygone era.”<\/p>\n

The ABC has contacted Spotlight for comment.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

SANE Australia has criticised companies for selling the costume which it says relies on old “tropes”. (Supplied: Spotlight)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bunnings has removed a straitjacket costume from its online marketplace as mental health advocates urge retailers to stop…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":819416,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[102,1906,6623,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-819415","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mental-health","tag-health","tag-mental-health","tag-mentalhealth","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/819415","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=819415"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/819415\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/819416"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=819415"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=819415"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=819415"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}