News

Australian media professionals are reminded to apply Mindframe guidelines when reporting on the recent suicide of an LGBTIQ+ young person in Beaudesert, Qld.

Media are asked to avoid including details of the suicide method and location. This includes quoting or including screenshots from social media posts where these details are given. This information can be distressing and contribute to further suicidal behaviour in impacted communities.

Media are also reminded to include relevant help-seeking information, including LGBTIQ+ support services such as QLife, in all stories so anyone experiencing distress has relevant helpline numbers and support service information available.

Hearings for the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide are scheduled to recommence from Monday 28 August.

Australian media are reminded to report safely and sensitively on issues relating to suicide. While the Royal Commission may be validating or healing for some in the defence and veteran communities, it may also be distressing.

Please be mindful of this when reporting on information shared in the hearings and when approaching people for comment or interviews.

Everymind has launched a new set of guidelines aimed at improving the language used when communicating about mental health and wellbeing, mental ill-health, self-harm, suicide, eating disorders and alcohol and other drugs (AOD).

Newly published research has reaffirmed the importance of Mindframe guidelines in helping to reduce stigma after it was found that most media articles about alcohol and other drugs (AOD) focus on crime and justice.

As further details on the Western Downs incident and the alleged perpetrators emerge, Australian media professionals are reminded to apply Mindframe guidelines when reporting on mental illness in the context of violent crime, as well as the use of drugs.

To ensure accuracy when reporting about mental illness in the context of violent crime, media should avoid:

• Assuming the cause of crime or violence is mental illness
• Attributing a mental illness to someone purely because their actions are shocking or seem inexplicable
• Speculating about the person featured in a story having a mental illness
• Implying that everyone with a mental illness is violent, or is a risk to the public
• Asking for an ‘on air’ diagnosis from mental health experts.

Congratulations to the winners of this year’s Mindframe for Journalism Education Ossie Awards, Lucy Waldron and Brooke Young, presented at the Journalism Education and Research Association of Australia (JERAA) Conference.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) will tomorrow release its 2021 Causes of Death data. This data set will include annual national suicide information.

Media and communications professionals reporting on the data and findings included in this report are encouraged to be thoughtful, responsible and accurate to reduce the risk of harm or stigma for those in the community with lived experience of mental ill-health and suicide.

Everymind will be hosting a joint online briefing session with the ABS for media and those working in the mental health and suicide prevention sector on the statistics specifically relating to suicide deaths.

Hearings for the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide are scheduled to recommence on Tuesday 18 October. Australian media are reminded to report safely and sensitively on issues relating to suicide.

Everymind has today launched a new set of guidelines aimed at reducing the use of potentially stigmatising imagery in news and other public communication about mental ill-health, suicide and alcohol and other drugs (AOD).

The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) will be releasing its 2021 Causes of Death data on Wednesday, 19 October 2022 at 11:30am AEDT. This data set will include annual national suicide information.

Everymind will host a joint online briefing session with the ABS for media and those working in the mental health and suicide prevention sector on the statistics specifically relating to suicide deaths.