What is Mindframe National Media Initiative?
The Australian Government's Mindframe National Media Initiative (Mindframe Initiative) aims to encourage responsible, accurate and sensitive media representation of mental illness and suicide, and to advocate on behalf of community concerns relating to media depictions that stigmatise mental illness or promote self-harm.
Responsibility for Mindframe rests with the Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing.
Why is this important?
The media is an important source of information and a powerful influence on public attitudes. Research in Australia and overseas has shown that the way the media report about suicide and mental illness can influence public and private attitudes to these issues.
Living is for Everyone: a framework for prevention of suicide and self harm in Australia (LIFE) highlights the need for expert information to be made available to the media to guide industry codes of practice in order to reduce the likelihood of imitation suicides.
The National Action Plan for Promotion, Prevention and Early Intervention for Mental Health also identifies the media as a priority target for promoting mental health literacy and reducing the stigma associated with mental illness.
Who benefits?
The wider community will benefit from this initiative through a reduced impact of media reporting on suicide, and a better understanding of mental illness. Individuals with a mental illness will benefit from a reduction in stigma due to this increased understanding, and therefore an improvement in help-seeking behaviour and better outcomes. The initiative also aims to protect those vulnerable or at risk of suicide by improving the way suicide is reported and depicted in the media.
What will Mindframe deliver?
Mindframe consists of a suite of interconnected strategies including:
- Mindframe Media & Mental Health;
- Mindframe for the Mental Health Sector;
- Mindframe in the Law Enforcement Sector;
- Mindframe Stage and Screen;
- ResponseAbility Journalism;
- StigmaWatch and the SANE Media Centre; and
- Media Monitoring.
How will it work?
The above mentioned projects are delivered by a number of contracted service providers including the Hunter Institute of Mental Health and SANE Australia, in partnership with the Australian Network for Promotion, Prevention and Early Intervention (Auseinet), and Multicultural Mental Health Australia.
Mindframe is guided by the National Media and Mental Health Group which consists of representation from the media and mental health sectors.
What funding is the Australian Government committing?
The Australian Government has committed around $3.8million from 2006-09 for projects under the Mindframe initiative.
When did Mindframe start?
Mindframe commenced in 2000 following a review of the previous set of resources called 'Achieving the Balance'.
How is Mindframe progressing?
Since its inception Mindframe has continued the cooperative relationship with members of the news media. In addition, Mindframe has also moved into other areas of work including the mental health sector, the law enforcement sector and the Australian film and television industry.
The Australian Government is currently funding a follow-up media monitoring study which will give an indication of changes to media reporting since the first study in 2000-01 and linking this to uptake of the Mindframe resources. The results of this study are anticipated in October 2007.
Further information
The guidelines for journalists can be found at www.mindframe-media.info.
Information for the mental health sector can be found at http://www.mindframe-media.info/mentalhealth/.
Information regarding SANE Australia's StigmaWatch program can be found at www.sane.org.
Page currency, Latest update: 20 September, 2007