Stanford Initiative Aims to Educate Media About Responsible Suicide Reporting

In 2017, the popular Netflix drama “13 Reasons Why” became one of the most controversial series of the year because of its depiction of the fictional suicide of a 17-year-old girl. After its release, Google searches for “how to commit suicide” and “how to kill yourself”increased dramatically, and a 2020study reported that the suicide rate among youth spiked 29% above historical trends in the month after the release of “13 Reasons Why.”It is not surprising: An enormous body of research from American and international researchers —some of it dating back to the 1980s—has firmly established that certain kinds of media reporting on suicide deaths, and depictions of suicide in movies and television dramas, can influence suicide contagion, especially among young people.To address that problem, theMedia and Mental Health Initiative in the Department of Psychiatry at Stanford University aims to promote public education about mental health and suicide through proactive, sustained engagement with content producers in the news media, entertainment media, and social media.“This collaborative project will systematically embed evidence-informed guidelines across all media platforms to advance narratives that promote hope, help seeking, and awareness about mental health and suicide while mitigating harmful ones,” said Steven Adelsheim, M.D., director of the Stanford Center for Youth Mental Health and Wellbeing and a member of the APA Council on Children, Adolescents, ...
Source: Psychiatr News - Category: Psychiatry Tags: Media and Mental Health Initiative Netflix 13 Reasons Why Stanford University Steven Adelsheim Source Type: research