Australian journalism and public relations educators convene to support Mindframe

New opportunities for strengthening Mindframe training programs were focus of the recent Journalism and Public Relations Educators Advisory Group meeting held in Sydney.

The advisory group includes educators from universities across Australia, who meet annually with the Mindframe team to ensure the national media guidelines and resources are effective, accessible and up-to-date for future journalists and public relations professionals they teach.

Attendees at this year’s meeting received briefings on Everymind and the Mindframe project before sharing their knowledge and experience in two workshops. During the first workshop, the advisory group discussed opportunities for Mindframe to work with educators on research, partnerships and publications.

These discussions overlapped with the second workshop, which focussed on updating the Mindframe education resources and case studies, as well as the future of the training program within rapidly evolving education settings.

Everymind Suicide Prevention Project Lead, Sara Bartlett said these discussions have provided some excellent ideas for Mindframe moving forward.

“The advisory group educators are best placed to understand both their students’ needs and those of journalists and professional communicators,” Ms Bartlett said.

“They had some great ideas for how we can help to build the evidence base on communicating around mental illness, suicide and alcohol and other drugs.”

“They can see the gaps in the current research in these areas and are keen to work with Mindframe to address them.”

A third workshop session focussed on the Mindframe for Alcohol and Other Drugs (AOD) pilot training program, which aims to reduce stigma associated with AOD use and increase help-seeking behaviour.

This was a valuable opportunity for the group of educators to experience Mindframe AOD training firsthand and provide feedback before the pilot program is delivered throughout a number of Australian universities over the next 12 months.

The Mindframe Journalism and Public Relations Educators Advisory Group was formed in 2012.

For more information on Mindframe and resources for educators, please visit: https://bit.ly/2TyaOHC