What the Media Gets Wrong (and Right!) About Suicide
Tips for writing about suicide responsibly
September is Suicide Prevention and Awareness month and today, September 17th is National Physician Suicide Awareness Day. As psychiatrists, we are acutely aware of the pressures facing our fellow physician colleagues and have been disappointed when media coverage of physicians who have died by suicide has been handled poorly. Similarly, when high profile celebrities like Kate Spade, Robin Williams and Anthony Bourdain die by suicide, media coverage has often not been in line with established journalistic guidelines designed to responsibly report on this topic.
On our Clubhouse Creator First show, New Frontiers, we recently curated a conversation around reporting on or talking to the public about suicide. Our panel included Chris Maxwell, the head of PR and Media for the American Association of Suicidology, suicidologist Fredric Matteson, Raghu Appasani, MD, founder of the Minds Foundation, and Cory Feist, who is the brother in law of Dr. Lorna Breen, an eme…