Jeffrey Borenstein, M.D. Chairperson
No field is more dynamic or constantly in flux than communications, in which new technologies are born, evolve, and then give way to ever newer ones. The APA makes use of all the tools in the toolbox to keep its members, journalists, and the general public informed about all the developments in psychiatry. From print, video, and Web-based media to public opinion polls and social media, the Council on Communications partners with the Office of Communications and Public Affairs to help steer and enhance psychiatry’s image and the standing of APA.
The Council, which is chaired by Jeffrey Borenstein, M.D., is populated by some of APA’s most enthusiastic and engaged members. Its mission is to connect the public emotionally to psychiatrists, to create excitement about psychiatrists’ ability to prevent and treat mental illness, and to help brand psychiatrists as the mental health specialists with the most knowledge, training, and experience in the field.
Council on Communications members are some of APA’s most media-savvy and often engage in some communications efforts of their own. Dr. Borenstein is the host of the award-winning television show, Healthy Minds, which appears on PBS stations in over 60% of American households. The show, which profiles patients, advocates, and physicians, seeks to bring mental illness out of the shadows, to demystify diagnoses, and to alleviate the stigma suffered by patients. The council’s Vice Chairperson, Gabriela Cora, M.D., M.D.A., helps produce and star in Mission Makeover, a television reality show focused on guiding troubled women into more healthy and fulfilling lives on the Lifetime Network. Dr. Cora is also a Psychology Today blogger and the author of a book, published in 2012, focused on mental health for stressed-out executives.
Last year, the Council helped to guide APA’s redesign of its website, making the new website more dynamic and engaging and far easier to navigate. Council members weighed in on the “framework,” or architecture, of the site, as well as its functionality and overall look and feel. In its meetings, Council members asked thoughtful questions and made numerous suggestions to APA’s Chief Information Officer that were incorporated into the final product. In understanding the dearth of knowledge about mental illness among the public, one area that they especially focused on is the section geared toward patients, their loved ones, and members of the public, a section that formerly existed as a separate website.
Members of the Council on Communications gave more than lip service to the new website; several of them have been regular contributors to the site’s blog. They have brought a wealth of knowledge and expertise to the task, allowing APA to inform the public about high-profile issues, such as bullying, mental health in minority communities, spirituality and mental health, and the effects of domestic violence on children, to name just a few. Scott Benson, M.D., Jeff Borenstein, M.D., Gina Duncan, M.D., Gariane Gunter, M.D., Nubia Lluberes, M.D., Claudia Reardon, M.D., Arshya Vahabzadeh, M.D., and Felicia Wong, M.D., have all made excellent contributions to the blog as former or current members of the council. They bring to the effort both medical knowledge and the invaluable real-life experience from their treatment of real patients.
In 2012, under the guidance of Scott Benson, the Council formalized the establishment of the Member Communications Award, which recognizes outstanding communications efforts of the district branches and state associations in both print and electronic formats. Supplanting the former Newsletter of the Year Award, the new award recognizes the plethora of new media platforms available to district branches today, including e-newsletters, e-mail alerts, websites, and blogs, and also includes a category for an overall strategic communications plan. The Council reviewed the first submissions in 2012, and at the 2013 May Assembly Meeting, the Maine Association of Psychiatric Physicians, the Michigan Psychiatric Society, and the Maryland Psychiatric Society will all be presented with certificates honoring their selection as recipients of a Member Communications Award.
One of the recurring projects of the Office of Communications and Public Affairs is an annual public opinion poll, used to assess public attitudes about mental health and psychiatry. The poll, most recently conducted by Harris Interactive, has yielded valuable information in the past, some of which APA uses to generate publicity. Another use of the poll is to reveal areas in which more public education is needed. Some interesting findings from recent years show that the general public values mental health equally with general health and that psychiatrists are high on the list of mental health professionals that they would consult if they felt they or a loved-one had a mental health problem. Last year, the Council on Communications became more involved in designing key questions that can be asked year after year, making the poll truly longitudinal and more informative than ever.
Considering the pending publication of DSM-5, the Council’s members were kept informed about, and made helpful suggestions concerning, DSM media relations. The Council considered everything from the media outreach plan to the actual marketing of the book by American Psychiatric Publishing. One important question that the Council was presented with this year was how APA should respond to criticisms on the part of psychiatrists, psychologists, and psychology organizations. Their suggestions included researching the impact of the media outlet to ascertain whether a response would be effective, exploring and utilizing the possible relationships between APA leaders and the psychology groups, providing members with a Q&A to assist them in talking about DSM and publishing frequent DSM updates in Psychiatric News. The Council recognized the contentious nature of the blogosphere and counseled that being proactive in responding to media criticism needs to be balanced with an understanding of the credibility of the media source in question.
One project that the Council members were enthusiastic about is the creation of APA’s Annual Meeting app. Communications Council members tend to be early adopters of new technologies, and they fully embraced the new meeting app, utilizing it, comparing it to other apps they have used, and providing suggestions for how it could be more useful and replete. Another area that Council members are fully conversant with is social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter, and Gaby Cora, in particular, shared her own experiences as an avid user of social media. Dr. Cora related to the Council and OCPA how the integration of her TV appearances and social media (including the posting of her videos on YouTube) very quickly made her a presence in the social media cybersphere, allowing her to address a much larger audience than she was likely to access through traditional media.
Council on Communications members have been extremely generous with their time and energy in helping to facilitate and improve communications among early-career psychiatrists (ECPs) and members-in-training. The need for these groups to reach out to each other and engage in a dialogue has been longstanding, and the younger members of the Council were a driving force in having a special LinkedIn subgroup formed to address the need. Council member and ECP Trustee Molly McVoy, M.D., as well as Michael Takamura, M.D., volunteered to manage the subgroup, which is now active and accessible to any APA member who has joined the APA’s primary LinkedIn account.
As mentioned above, Dr. Borenstein’s Healthy Minds TV show helps to put a human face on mental illness through in-depth interviews of the patients who experience it, the doctors who treat it, and the advocates who fight to reduce stigma. The show has won several awards, including three silver and two bronze Telly Awards and a fair Media Council Folio Award. The Council members helped to brainstorm new topics and new ways to promote the show, recommending greater involvement with APA’s social media efforts and the posting of episodes on YouTube.
The work of the Council on Communications contributes to some of APA’s most important goals: maintaining the public perception of psychiatry in a contentious and changing media environment, keeping APA at the top of journalists’ rolodexes as the go-to organization for information about mental health, and humanizing our often stigmatized patients. The challenge of accomplishing all this with the latest media and communications tools promises that the Council will continue to play an integral role in APA in the years to come.