10 Things you didn’t know
about RCPsych Public Education
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