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Recommendations for depicting suicide in entertainment released
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
mental health weekly
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1556-7583
pISSN - 1058-1103
DOI - 10.1002/mhw.31821
Subject(s) - entertainment , alliance , suicide prevention , general partnership , public relations , entertainment industry , action (physics) , poison control , psychology , advertising , medicine , business , political science , environmental health , law , physics , quantum mechanics
The first‐ever national recommendations for depicting suicide in entertainment content were released March 12 by the National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention (Action Alliance), the nation's public‐private partnership for suicide prevention. The recommendations aim to help members of the entertainment industry — content creators, scriptwriters and producers — tell more balanced and authentic stories involving suicide and suicide prevention. Studies have found that the way the media covers suicide can influence behavior negatively, by contributing to increased suicidal behavior among viewers, or positively, by encouraging help‐seeking and recovery. To assist the entertainment industry in promoting accurate portrayals of suicide — a key goal of the National Strategy for Suicide Prevention — the Action Alliance collaborated with the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration and the Entertainment Industries Council to develop the recommendations, which were informed by both representatives from the entertainment industry and the suicide prevention fields. The National Recommendations for Depicting Suicide's nine recommendations to help content creators craft stories about survival, hope and healing, include showing that help is available, connecting viewers to resources and using nonjudgmental language.