SHUBHANGI SHIFA
Ranchi, Sept 20: The Central Institute of Psychiatry (CIP), Kanke on Tuesday organised a workshop on Media, Suicide and Mental Health Professionals: Responsible Reporting. The workshop aimed to make media personnel understand that suicide is a ‘copy-cat’ act, and through imitation suicide deaths can rise, however, sensible reporting of suicide deaths may be able to save many lives.
A total of 20 media professionals from various print and digital media platforms of Jharkhand attended the workshop. The chief guest of the workshop was Sanjay Mishra, President, Ranchi Press Club.
In his inaugural address, the Director of the CIP, Prof Dr Basudeb Das addressed the gathering, and focussed on guidelines of the Mental Health Care Act of 2017, and on reporting of mental illness and suicide. The role of media in preventing suicide and diminishing the stigma concerning mental illness is very high, and changing the reporting type from crime reporting to health reporting can work wonders.
Other dignitaries and speaker, present during the workshop were Prof Dr Binay Lakra, President of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists (RANZCP), Prof Dr Hellen Harman University of Melbourne, Dr Lakshmi Vijakumar, member of the WHO’s International Network for Suicide Research and Prevention, and Dr Sujit Sarkal, Editor of Bengal Journal of Psychiatry.
The speakers spoke about different aspect of suicide and mental illness. They said that positive reporting can play a significant role in suicide prevention. Detailed reporting can contribute towards increase in suicide rates.
Applying caution when interviewing bereaved family or friends of victims of suicide, reporting with ethical aspects in consideration, avoiding details on ‘where’, ‘when’ and ‘how’ while reporting, can help the audience to not imitate the act. Moreover, the media professionals themselves can be affected by detailed reporting.
Sanjay Mishra president, the Ranchi press club, later, expressed the dilemma in balancing and reporting incidents of suicide, and the need to bridge gaps between media and mental health.
An interactive session was also conducted between the media professionals and the mental health professionals, where points on interviewing the affected family, and do’s and don’ts in interviewing bereaved families, maintaining balance in detailed reporting and commercialisation on a positive note, with ethical considerations in mind was discussed. Further, plans to involve social media influencers and bloggers were also discussed.
