Fundacion CONTENER - Boletin Electronico

SPECIAL SYMPOSIA
SpS.1
Media and Mental Health

Roger Montenegro¹ , Levent Küey², Ferhat Boratav³, Tina Beradze⁴, Michaela Amering⁵, Wolfgang Rutz⁶

¹WPA Zonal Representative for South America, Chair Contener Foundation, Argentina
²Department of Psychiatry, Beyolu Training Hospital and Department of Psychology in Bilgi, University, Istanbul, Turkey
³General Director, CNN TURK TV
⁴Director of International Affairs, Ukrainian Psychiatric Association, Ukraine
⁵Department of Psychiatry, University of Vienna, Austria
⁶Uppsala University Hospital, Sweden

Various forms of the media have a powerful influence on mental health, in a range of ways. Public knowledge and attitudes towards people with mental illnesses and their treatment, responses to major challenges such as suicide, terrorism and SARS, and understanding the influence of media on the mental health and behavior of young people and others, are strongly shaped by practice of people working in the media. People working in the media and mental health professionals need help from each other to understand how their work can be done in ways that serve the public interest. The media, the mental health professionals, governments and other organizations can work together with the aim of improving mental health.