This was an email I just received from The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, which Im sure was sent out to anyone that has participated in anything they are doing. (My family and friends did the Out of the Darkness Walk last year). They reinforced the feelings that I have about what the tragic suicide of Robin Williams has done to make people more informed about mental illness and suicide prevention. AFSP in the Media Following the Tragic Loss of Robin Williams Dear Rhonda, The tragic death of Robin William has led to a significant number of print, TV and radio stories where AFSP has been featured. Over the past three days we had 42 media inquiries to the national office where information was provided and there were 11 expert interviews where I, Christine Moutier, our Chief Medical Officer or Jill Harkavy Friedman, our VP for Research were featured. This doesnt include numerous interviews where a local AFSP chapter volunteer or staff member was featured. Articles appeared in a variety of major publications including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Chicago Tribune, and Washington Post, We were also featured on the BBC, NPR and numerous other radio programs. One example of which is a radio interview I did on ABC Radio. In addition to traditional media, we saw record engagement with social media—reaching a total of 2.9 million people. Several statements we have posted on social media and on the AFSP website include our initial statement the morning after the announcement of Robin Williams’ death, an article from me commenting on misguided stories implying that suicide is a selfish or cowardly act, and another on the dangers of unsafe reporting. This is unprecedented impact, and we hope to carry this positive conversation on social media into National Suicide Prevention Week this September. And we also saw traffic to the AFSP website dramatically increase. For example on Tuesday, we had over 108,000 distinct visitors to the AFSP website. On average we have about 6,000 daily visitors. And several campaigns were started this week by others to raise funds for AFSP’s suicide prevention work. Through all of this outreach, both traditional and social media, we educated journalists on safe reporting, we spread the hopeful message that suicide is preventable, stressed the importance of seeking treatment for depression and mental disorders, and let those who are struggling know where to turn for help. I want to thank our in-house issue experts, especially Christine, for serving as spokespersons with the media, and also our new Communications Team for the role they played in all the above media outreach and for helping to shape the discussion. We are saddened by the loss of Robin Williams, but his death has triggered an important conversation about depression, mental illness and suicide that will help save lives. Robert Gebbia Chief Executive Officer American Foundation for Suicide Prevention
Posted on: Fri, 15 Aug 2014 16:59:26 +0000
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