BUILDING SUSTAINABILITY OF MENTAL HEALTH MESSAGES

IN NEWS AND ENTERTAINMENT MEDIA

Nedra Kline WeinreichEntertainment Industries Council, Inc.

@Nedra

Core Principles

• Mission Statement: To bring the power and influence of the entertainment industry to bear on communication about health and social issues

• Engage with stakeholders to develop messages• Collaborate with media – not a “watchdog”• Respect for media and right to free speech

TEAM Up Project Partners

Media Partners

Project Funding

TEAM Up provides resources to news and entertainment industry professionals to

depict mental health issues accurately and in a nonstigmatizing way.

What is TEAM Up?Tools for Entertainment and Media

Project Goals

To increase the level of mental health among Californians by working with entertainment, news and social media professionals to:

– Decrease the level of stigma felt by those who need to access mental health services or have been diagnosed with a mental illness, leading to help-seeking behavior

– Decrease the level of discriminatory and prejudicial actions toward people with mental health issues by others in their community

Objectives

Media professionals will have positive changes in:

– Knowledge – mental illness facts, how to talk about mental health in a non-stigmatizing way, that EIC/TEAM Up is a resource they can use

– Attitudes – level of stereotypes/prejudice, belief that what they do can affect their audience positively or negatively, self efficacy, accuracy as a value

– Behaviors – attend TEAM Up events, contact us for assistance, consult our website/materials, create and report accurate stories following guidelines, adopt our recommendations as organizational policy

Program Pillars

News Media

Entertainment Industry

Mental Health Stakeholders

Key Messages

Key Messaging Points

• Assessing relevance to story• Using reliable sources for diagnosis• Choosing words for accuracy• Avoiding reinforcement of stereotypes and

stigma• Using person-first language• Avoiding assumption that violence caused

by mental illness

Usual Approach – One by One

Our Approach: Message Sustainability

Sustainability through:

• Creating Message Infrastructure• Establishing Partnerships• Working at Corporate Level• Working at Association Level• Training the Next Generation• Building Organizational Capacity

Message Infrastructure

Partnerships

California Newspaper Publishers Assn

California Broadcasters AssnJournalism Assn of Community Colleges

Working at Corporate Level

• Univision– 12 affiliates in California

• Digital First/Media News Group– 70 newspapers in California

• Patch/AOL/Huffington Post• Television Networks– Standards & Practices, Programming, Creative

Executives

Newsroom Briefings

– Riverside Press-Enterprise

– Orange County Register– San Jose Mercury News– Contra Costa Times– Oakland Tribune

– Other Digital First Papers

– KQED– Patch

(NoCal)/AOL/Huffington Post

Working at Association Level

• National Association of Broadcasters/California Broadcasters Association

• Radio Television Digital News Association• California Newspaper Publishers Association• New America Media• Ethnic-Specific Media Associations– e.g., Asian American Journalist Association,

National Association of Hispanic Journalists, etc.

Building Organizational Capacity

• Training mental health stakeholders to tell their stories and work with media– County Mental Health Departments– Community Based Organizations/Providers– People with Lived Experience/Family Members

• Picture This forums create dialogue between media and stakeholders

• Mental health reporting fellowships for journalists

Training the Next Generation

• Generation Next Program– Training film/television and journalism students

on accurate depictions/reporting – Faculty training and curriculum adoption grants– Guest lectures in classes/student organizations– Student competition– Active Minds chapters mini-grants for participation

• Partners– UC/CSU/Calif. Community Colleges– Journalism Association of Community Colleges

(866) 284-9767teamup@eiconline.org

http://eiconline.org/teamup

Questions?