1. Our website receives a fraction of the
funding that a comparable business spends, but with around
3,397,883 visitors last year, achieves more hits than any Medical
Royal College. Until February 2011 (something we will attempt to
regain), it was the number one mental health website in Europe and
worldwide, second only to the American Psychological
Association.
2. The College’s public education department
has produced over 300 leaflets, now available in 17 other
languages. Our Help is at
Hand leaflets were recently accredited by the NHS
Information Standard and have received several awards. Our most
popular leaflet on CBT has been looked at 62,594 in a year. These
leaflets – all of which can be downloaded free of charge – are
written by dedicated members and our partners, especially service
users and carers. Dr Phil Timms has coordinated our editorial
output since 2002, and was the first winner of the RCPsych Public
Educator of the Year in 2009. The Child and Adolescent Family
Public Editorial Board, chaired by Professor Ann Le Couteur,
produces and updates the Mental
Health and Growing Up series of leaflets (free to
download).
3. We keep a database of psychiatrists
willing speak to print and broadcast media, on almost every subject
related to psychiatry, and broader mental health issues. We update
this list as often as volunteers and new speakers agree to
participate – it represents a huge variety of psychiatrists by
geography, specialist area and opinion. If your area or your views
are neglected, just contact Liz
Fox to get on the list.
4. A small group of experienced College
spokespeople has taken on the additional challenge of responding to
high profile UK homicides by people with diagnosed mental illness.
Here the challenge is to communicate clearly the lessons learned
from each individual tragedy, and to place into context the small
increased risk of violence from a minority of people with
psychosis. By comparison, people with severe mental illness are
substantially more likely to be victims of violence (including
homicide) and our society sees more loss of life as a result of
intoxication with alcohol and illegal drugs.
5. Last year, the Communications Department
sent out 88 press releases. These have a modest impact, competing
with many other stories (medical and otherwise) for print space and
broadcast time. Our speakers and College spokespeople achieve a
disproportionately high impact every month. We produce
a monthly
digest of our press coverage. Contact Liz Fox to receive an e-mail
version of this each month.
6. Over the last 15 years, over 800
psychiatrists have received free media training organised by the
College Public Education Committee (PEC) to cope with the
challenges of modern media interviews. These have taken place in
every part of these islands – with “hands on training” from (to
name but six) Mike Shooter, Richard Williams, Peter Byrne, Mark
Salter, Neel Halder and Ros Ramsay.
7. One of our strong areas is Film. We write
about films, we advise on them, we programme festivals and we make
them. Recently we worked with Dr Kamran Ahmed to host
Medfest – a series of university-based evenings that will screen
films to medical students. Other than their enjoyment, we
believe these events will increase recruitment into our
profession.
8. Public education is already strong in the
RCPsych in Northern Ireland and the RCPsych in Scotland. Last year
we moved one PEC meeting to Manchester to collaborate with our
colleagues to create PEC – North. This October, we will move the
second ever PEC meeting outside London to Coventry to work with the
West Midlands and Trent Divisions.
9. PEC was actively involved in the
production and editing of the College’s bestselling books for the
general public, The Mind: A User’s Guide and The Young Mind. We
have sold more copies of these books than any other RCPsych
publication. Since 1988, PEC has organised an annual Debate for
Young People. Over 500 14- to 18-year olds attend each event and
participate in lively discussion. We believe this makes pupils and
teachers more positive about what we do and who we are.
10. As fast as we can, we adapt to social
media. Our trainees are on Facebook; our Press Officer tweets; and we
have a YouTube channel for
streaming videos. We are planning to introduce QR codes on our
leaflets. Do keep up.
- Finally, don't forget the
Morris Markowe Prize, awarded
annually for an original article on a psychiatric topic.
Dr Peter Byrne
Associate-Registrar, Public Education and
Patients & Carers
June 2011