Public Education Committee (PEC)

Public Education Committee (PEC)

Highlights of activities 2009-2010

The Public Education Committee (PEC) has met four times in the last year. One of these meetings was an annual event to which all Divisional Public Education Officers are invited to attend and report back on their activities over the last year.

The annual PEC meeting was followed by a media training session for a group of Divisional Public Education Officers, PEC members, and service users and carers. The training, delivered by Millbank Media, explained how to deliver core messages to the media, and gave delegates an opportunity to practice down-the-line interviews and pitching story ideas to journalists.

Aims of the Public Education Committee

The Public Education Committee is a Standing Committee of Council chaired by the Director of Public Education. It aims to:

• achieve greater awareness and understanding of mental health problems in general and psychiatric disorders in particular, in order to overcome fear and prejudice;
• achieve greater awareness and understanding of psychiatry and its successes and limitations;
• become a major source of information on psychiatry;
• raise awareness of established and expected standards of good practice in psychiatry, and encourage the dissemination of College reports;
• raise awareness of the importance of communication with the public and the media among members of the College;
• emphasise the dignity and courage of people who suffer from mental health problems;
• improve the dissemination of accessible and accurate information to the general public, to those who suffer from mental health problems and to their relatives and carers;
• anticipate and respond to major public pronouncements on mental health issues.

The Public Education Committee has two committees which report directly:

The Westminster Parliamentary Liaison Committee which raises the profile of the College amongst MPs and Peers and promote the College’s views in parliament.

The Public Education Editorial Board which has a remit is to produce, review and disseminate high quality written materials on mental health for the general public

Highlights of PEC’s activities over the last year included:

Violence and mental illness in the media

PEC Chair Dr Peter Byrne met with Prof. Louis Appleby, the Mental Health Tsar,to discuss the issue of violence and mental health. It was agreed that the National Mental Health Development Unit would fund media training of a group of psychiatrists from within the College, to act as spokespeople on violence and mental illness in the media. This was held on 8 May 2009 at the College, was well attended and received.

PEC also produced a briefing on violence and mental illness in the media to guide members of the College who may be invited to respond to media enquiries relating to homicides and violence.

Department of Health’s Accreditation Scheme for Health and Social Care Information

The Public Education Editorial Board application to the Department of Health’s Accreditation Scheme for Health and Social Care Information was successful. The College is the only Royal Medical College to be part of this pilot which is about bringing in a kite-marking system for health information. Many of the College’s public education resources, both in print and on the College website will now include the Information Standard logo to demonstrate that the College has been certified as a producer of reliable health and social care information.

Morris Markowe Public Education Prize 2009

PEC received ten entries for the Morris Markowe Public Education Prize in 2009. The prize was established in 1989 from funds donated in the memory of the late Dr Morris Markowe, Honorary Fellow, and Registrar of the Royal College of Psychiatrists from 1972-78. The 2009 winner was Dr Ashley McKimm with the article ‘Making it crystal clear. The myth of methamphetamine.’

Devolution of Public Education Activities

PEC has agreed that one of the meetings annually be held at a Divisional office. A large section of BBC news had been moved to Manchester and it was felt that there was a great deal of enthusiasm for public education initiatives in the North West of England.

The committee discussed this further and the following suggestions were made:

• It was suggested that ‘Public Education’ should be a standing item on Divisional Executive’s agendas.
• PEC has redrafted the Divisional Public Education Officer’s Job Description. It was felt that the committee should devolve more of its activities to the Divisional Public Education Officers (DPEOs).
• The DPEOs present at the 2009 annual meeting felt that dedicated Programmed Activity Time agreed with the Medical Directors in their local Trust would be essential to encourage this.
• It was suggested that each DPEO should form a regional network of media spokespeople.
• Each DPEO should also approach local radio and press with proactive good news stories and form relationships. It was reiterated that the College’s Press Office in London should remain the main point of contact.

PEC and the College’s Press Office

2009 is only the second year in which the College has employed a full time Press Officer. The addition of Liz Fox to the Communications Department has greatly enhanced the PEC and the College’s relationship with the media, and enabled the Press Office to work more proactively, by ‘placing’ articles, long-term forward planning, crisis management, and collaboration with external organisations. Recent examples of effective collaboration included work with BBC Radio 1 Newsbeat on the issue of images of self harm online, which resulted in blanket coverage across BBC television news and radio, and subsequently beyond, and the Eating Disorders Section of the College with beat (Formally the Eating Disorders Association) on the issue of unhealthy body-images and the glamorisation of eating disorders. The College Press Office continues to be the ‘first number’ for journalists and media researchers to call when the issue is mental health.

The Press Office also maintains the College’s Twitter account on a daily basis. Each 140-character Tweet instantly updates our 700+ followers on the latest College news, and promotes psychiatry and psychiatrists in the news: twitter.com/rcpsych

Monthly media coverage summaries, highlighting articles mentioning the College, our journals or psychiatrists put forward by the Press Office, are circulated to College Officers, PEC members, DPEOs, and Divisional and committee managers. They are also posted on the recently re-designed Press pages on the College website:

Royal College of Psychiatrists Christmas Debate for Young People 2009

The Royal College of Psychiatrists Christmas Debate for Young People was held on Monday 14 December 2009, at the Royal Institute of British Architects. The motion for the debate was ‘This house believes that technology is bad for your mental health.’ 400 young people between the ages of fourteen and eighteen attended. The event was over-subscribed with over 600 places on the reserve list. It has been proposed that the committee consider repeating the debate in 2010 with a morning session and an afternoon session, so that more young people would be able to participate.

Annual Meeting of the Royal College of Psychiatrists 2 - 5 June 2009, Liverpool Arena and Convention Centre: Media training and coverage

The committee organised a Press Office within the exhibition area at the Annual Meeting of the Royal College of Psychiatrists. There was also a large stand to promote the College’s public education materials. A media training booth, primarily staffed by Dr Mark Salter, was available for delegates to undertake one-to one media training.

The College Press Office issued 19 press releases during the four-day meeting. Meltwater, the electronic media monitoring service, recorded 175 online mentions of the Royal College of Psychiatrists during the Annual Meeting week. By far the most widely-reported story during this year’s Annual Meeting was the claim that eating curry every week ‘could prevent dementia’. The story was given to The Sun as an exclusive on 2 June, before being picked up by national, local and international news outlets.

Media reporting of suicide

PEC Chair, Dr Peter Byrne, met with Madeline Moon, MP for Bridgend and a small group including representatives from the Samaritans, Papyrus and the Department of Health. Madeline continues to have informal meetings with editors and Press Complaints Council (PCC) personnel about the worst reporting of suicide. The new PCC Section 5.2 code resulted from the photographs of the business woman who jumped from a window. PEC will continue to collaborate with the Samaritans and other groups to keep this issue alive.

RCPsych Awards 2009

Dr Philip Timms, Chair of the Public Education Editorial Board, received the award for RCPsych Public Educator of the Year 2009, at the RCPsych Awards Ceremony held on Tuesday 6 October 2009 at the Royal Society of Medicine.

Resources for teachers, students and schools following the suicide of a student

PEDC was contacted by Dr Jia Doulton concerning education resources available in schools following the suicide of a student. Dr Doulton had written to the College in her role as a Governor of an independent school in Surrey where a prominent student had committed suicide.

The Head teacher had to deal with a range of difficult challenges in the immediate aftermath. Dr Kevin Healey had contacted Dr Doulton on behalf of the committee. Dr Healy produced a short guide to the main points and issues/sources of help for teachers and professionals to consider when facing similar circumstances in the future.

Public Education Committee (PEC) Handbook

PEC updatedits Handbook which is now available on the College website. The Handbook is aimed at all members of the College and gives practical advice on workingwith the media.

‘Get Well Soon’ cards

PEC collaborated with the Service User Recovery Forum (SURF) and Carers Forum on the development and design of a new range of mental health ‘Get well soon’ cards. The cards have been produced by the College as part of the three-year Fair Deal campaign which is working towards equality for people with mental health problems. The two card designs featuring illustrations by Lo Cole were launched on 9 October 2009. The cards and a survey of service users and carers promoted the concept of recovery in mental ill health, and highlighted how people are treated differently when they are unwell with a mental illness as opposed to physical illness. This generated extensive and positive media coverage at national, regional and local levels, and received celebrity endorsement from Trisha Goddard and Stephen Fry. Children’s illustrator Quentin Blake contacted the College as a result and is interested in producing further cards, and has agreed to exhibit his art work at the International Congress of the Royal College of Psychiatrists in Edinburgh. Sales of the cards are going well, and several large orders have been placed by hospital Trusts.

Service user and carer podcasts

A number of service users and carers had expressed an interest in participating in podcasts in which they talk about their personal experience of mental ill health for the College’s mental health information pages. The Addictions Service Users and Carer Liaison Group have completed two podcasts and these have proved to be very popular. A podcast if this type could be linked to each condition or leaflet on the College website.

‘A day in the life of’ podcasts

A series of the ‘A day in the life of’ podcasts are being developed.Psychiatrists from each specialty would describe a normal working day, what they enjoy about their role, etc. This would be an opportunity to clarify exactly what psychiatrists do, or do not do, and potentially encourage the recruitment of psychiatrists.

Registered office: 17 Belgrave Square, London, SW1X 8PG, UK Tel: +44 (0)20 7235 2351 Fax: +44 (0)20 7245 1231 Charity registration number: 228636

NO HEALTH WITHOUT MENTAL HEALTH