A webinar with J. Corey Feist, co-founder, Dr. Lorna Breen Heroes’ Foundation; Dr. Victor Schwartz, CEO and director, Mind Strategies, and clinical associate professor of psychiatry, NYU School of Medicine; Klaudia Jaźwińska, journalist/researcher; and Lorna Fraser, Executive Lead, Media Advice Service, Samaritans.
In this webinar, we took a closer look at mental health and suicide—focusing on what to know to thoughtfully cover the issue. We also took a more critical look at how suicide is being covered—what journalists are getting wrong, what is being ignored and other key issues on mental health reporting.
We were joined by J. Corey Feist, who is the president and co-Founder of the Dr. Lorna Breen Heroes’ Foundation. In addition to highlighting what the foundation is doing, we also heard from Feist about how the family handled the press coverage following Breen’s death. From him, we were able to get direction on how journalists can responsibly report on suicide.
We were also joined by journalist and researcher, Klaudia Jaźwińska. She co-authored a recently published case study that found that top U.S. media outlets covering Breen’s death did a poor job of adhering to best practice recommendations for reporting on suicide.
Another panelist that joined us was Dr. Victor Schwartz, CEO and director at Mind Strategies and clinical associate professor of psychiatry at the NYU School of Medicine. Schwartz helped us to better understand suicidology—the scientific study of suicidal behavior, the causes of suicidalness and suicide prevention; Schwartz also shared the trends regarding suicide in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, and insights for journalists covering suicide and/or mental health in general.
