August 28, 2009
How would you cover something you could not see?
David Chartrand, one of the few journalists in the US who cover mental illness, and Dr. Scott Poland, from the Center for Psychological Studies and Coordinator of Suicide and Violence Prevention Office, Nova Southeastern University, teamed up to try to teach journalists how to cover mental illness.
As I said, there are few journalists who will attempt to delve into this kind of coverage because it’s hard to report what you can’t see. Matter of the mind are always hard to understand, much less report!
Let’s begin with resources:
- The New Freedom Commission on Mental Health (2003)
- The Surgeon Generals Report on Mental Health (1999)
- The National Strategy on Suicide Prevention (2001)
Journalists, and everyday people for that matter, are afraid to talk and write about things they don’t understand. The first step toward understanding is looking for facts. You must research the topic. Ask stupid questions, then question your answers.
Interview the mentally ill people you want to cover. Talk to their family and friends. You need more than an official source anyway!
FERPA is one of the most misunderstood documents ever, Chartrand said. In order to help clear up some confusion, he created FERPA: Murphy’s Law to help us all understand a little better.
Remember that stories about mental illness are not health stories. It’s treated like one, but in honesty, it is a political story, Chartrand said.
Shall we talk a little about suicide? Well, yes.
There is a stigma that comes with a person taking their own life. Politicians know this, your grandmother knows this. The question we need to think about is why is a person characterized so differently after their suicide? For instance, if Johnny was the most popular boy in school and everyone viewed him, in life, as the happy-go-lucky kid they had always known, then why after he commits suicide does he become the loner or drug addict? I’m not going to answer that question. I will leave that one for you to ponder.
When Dr. Poland stood to speak in the session, he said some shocking things that hurt my heart. For instance, an elementary school child brought a gun to school. When a fellow classmate noticed it in the first child’s backpack, he alerted the teacher quietly. After three times of being told that a student in the room had a gun, the teacher asked, for the whole class to hear, “Do you have gun in your backpack?” The kid confirmed the fire arm was in his backpack. The teacher asked the child to bring the gun to the front of the room. A child walked through his full classroom to hand the gun to his teacher, who did not alert administration. His question was, are we asking our schools about mental illness? Are they being held responsible?
He said that 20 percent of children have a diagnosable mental illness, but there are few resources for them. On a college campus, suicide is the second leading cause of death.
The prescribed method to start shedding some light on mental illness is to start producing stories and information to show people what they can do to prevent tragedies like school shootings and suicides. The nation needs information and resources about mental health awareness.
If you have any questions about mental health reporting, I can tell you I’ve written one story about the issue, so I can only help so much. I do however know of people who can. Contact me for their information.
Also, there is a 24-hour suicide crisis hotline. The number is 1-800-SUICIDE.
Jessi Propst
President