New Social Media Guidelines Offer Tips for Talking Effectively About Mental Health and Suicide Online

By Brian Dyak, President & CEO of Entertainment Industries Council, Inc. and co-lead of the Action Alliance Public Awareness and Education Task Force

Social media has become ubiquitous. People communicate online about their lives and get their information about the world from sites like Facebook, Twitter and blogs. When one in four people experience mental health challenges each year, social media is a place where some will turn to talk about their experiences, to seek support from their friends and to find helpful information. Social media offers a venue in which people are more comfortable discussing their own mental health issues, which in turn increases the likelihood that others will seek help when they need it.

With that in mind, the Entertainment Industries Council’s TEAM Up project has just released the first-of-its-kind Social Media Guidelines for Mental Health Promotion and Suicide Prevention. These new guidelines are designed to assist individuals and organizations in safely and effectively talking about mental health and suicide-related issues via social media. With tips for posting and responding on Facebook pages, groups, Twitter feeds, Tumblr pages, websites and blogs and more, the guidelines take into account the unique safety, privacy and stigma-related aspects of these issues.

The recommendations in this document were reviewed by experts in social media and the related health fields. Organizational supporters of the Guidelines include the National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention, California Mental Health Services Authority, Facebook Inc. and leading journalism organizations the National Association of Broadcasters and Radio Television Digital News Association.

“Whether you want to share your own story, discuss events in the news or help others understand mental illness and encourage them to seek help when they need it, these recommendations will be a helpful resource for everyone, especially in teaching children and teens how to communicate about these issues. Safe, constructive communication via social media, that avoids stigmatizing or derogatory language and does no harm, changes the conversation and decreases discrimination,” said Brian Dyak, Entertainment Industries Council, President and CEO and Co-Chair National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention Public Awareness & Education Task Force, when the Guidelines were released.

“Social media makes it easier than ever to connect and share with the people you care about,” said Joe Sullivan, Chief Security Officer, Facebook and Co-Chair of the National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention Public Awareness & Education Task Force. “Knowing effective ways to seek input and offer support to your friends and families about difficult topics is an important part of building a safe online community."

“The guidelines have been reviewed by experts in social media and the related health fields. When communicating online avoiding descriptions and images of suicide acts or methods can help reduce the risk of suicide contagion. Anyone can use this new tool to help someone who may be in crisis and potentially help save a life,” Executive Director, Suicide Awareness Voices of Education Dr. Dan Reidenberg commented.

Social media can be instrumental in bringing about social change – by spreading ideas from person to person, by bringing people together for a common purpose, by sharing and reinforcing social norms and by making it easy for people to take action. Social media is not about the technology, but rather it’s about people talking to people, often on a massive scale. By using these powerful tools in a strategic way, and encouraging others to do so as well, we can harness their power to change how people think about mental health and suicide prevention.

Visit TEAM Up for more information.

Self Built Lonely Walls

The first I heard of suicide was a story about my great uncle told by my parents when I was a child. He was a Navy Seabee, loved by many, and then gone. He took his life. I wondered why? Another story told to me, a threat of suicide during my college days…my friend talking her roommate down from exiting via the window of a high-rise dorm building, lots of screaming, tears, then hugs, and then off to the college pub to party…it will be ok? Then as a high school substitute teacher hearing rumors among students about life-threatening behaviors, they were just high. Everything was fine? Attitudes and behavior merging to silence often so lonely, and so quiet, suicide not to be spoken of, yet almost deafening noise created by loss, pain, and anguish.

Brian Dyak
President and CEO
Entertainment Industries Council, Inc.
National Action Alliance Executive Committee Member

Finally out of college ready to tackle the world, I was young, married, and energetic. Opportunity abounded, she a trained crisis intervention teen counselor and me an activist organizing and creating youth crisis services for runaway youth. I heard stories of dysfunctional families, physically abusive family circumstances, alcohol abuse and drug addiction, rape, incest, violence, and suicide. My path became clearer to help make the community aware that compassion was necessary and services such as hot lines and crises centers were essential. The challenge: to somehow stop the cycle of discontent and to work to make things better by finding like-minded people who cared and promote services that can assist.

Then, what seemed to me out of nowhere, I came home to find that my wife compromised her life and her service to others by ending her life. The same friend who talked her roommate out of jumping. I took solace in a note that spoke of love and life and her trials to be a part of this world. She spoke of her own “self built lonely walls” and vindicated those who loved her clearing the blame, guilt, suspicion, and doubt. She put forth a challenge to discover how strong one must be to go on. A challenge she chose not to accept for herself. I went forward with great confusion. What could I have done?

Unfortunately it did not stop. My friend and college roommate, a talented musician, decided he “had enough” following in the footsteps of one of his good friends who permanently left his children and family to fend for themselves. I wrote his parents to lend what support I could, explaining all the good that their son had bestowed on so many and his high standard of friendship. Other suicides surfaced in my life among close family, friends and acquaintances, the most recent a friend who just lost his son a few months ago. How can anyone really understand that split-second of decision to actually leave life behind?

Suicide, creating wounds and then scars for life, challenges the power of optimism that the world can be a better place. Yet, like a huge human experiment of life, I have been fortunate finding compassion and support from loved ones early on, learning the importance of sending out love, unconditional love, and finding like-minded people. The havoc suicide does to relationships may be countered by love and time. Working together towards understanding and openness is essential…hiding only contributes to the loneliness and the confusion, a consideration I made when I said yes to writing this blog. I also deeply considered the contributions that the media could make to suicide prevention.

The National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention is an amalgamation for me of what has been, what is, and what can be. It is an honor to participate as a member of its Executive Committee. The Action Alliance is a gift that permits many people with varied life experiences and vast expertise to work together on behalf of others and unselfishly themselves. The notion that shaping public policy, service to others, raising awareness, and educating about real-life circumstances of suicide is a power that states,” I am not alone, we are not alone”. Feeling the support of others, communicating the caring for the purpose and mission, and, most importantly, showing love of life and optimism creates opportunity that together we can truly make a difference. I believe we can set a course that can break down “self built lonely walls” and let life be the gift it is intended to be. The Action Alliance is a vehicle for that belief to come true and I am grateful to be able to play a small part.