Forum on The Role of Media in Suicide Prevention
Forum on The Role of Media in Suicide Prevention set on 22 October at the University of the Philippines
The Foundation for Advancing Wellness, Instruction and Talents (AWIT) is holding a Forum on The Role of Media in Suicide Prevention on 22 October, from 1pm to 4pm at the Pulungang Recto, Faculty Center, University of the Philippines Diliman, Quezon City. The Forum aims to share information on suicide and suicide prevention, and encourage the media to pursue responsible reporting of suicide and related events. Topics include the role of media in suicide prevention, understanding suicide and Suicide First Aid Guidelines for the Philippines among others.
In cooperation with the World Health Organization, UP Open University, and UP College of Arts and Letters , the Forum is a sequel to the consultation on Media and the Prevention of Suicide (MAPS) held at the WPRO last 13 July when participating journalists expressed their need for training on how to handle suicide stories particularly on how to ask questions, how to help in suicide prevention, and how to recognize warning signs of suicide.
Featured speaker for this Forum is Dr. Erminia Colucci, lead author of Mental Health First Aid guidelines for helping a suicidal person: a Delphi consensus study in the Philippines published in the International Journal of Mental Health Systems in 2010.
Media practitioners and mental health advocates are enjoined to attend. Registration is free. Please confirm your attendance by emailing foundation.awit@gmail.com or text 09152752033 or 09206139377 and visit www.facebook.com/Foundation.AWIT.
Program
1:00 - 1:30 - Registration and suicide attitude survey
1:30 - 1:45 - Welcome Remarks/ Opening Remarks
1:45 - 2:30 - Presentation: Suicide First Aid Guidelines for the Philippines and The Role of Media in Suicide Prevention by Dr. Erminia Colucci
2:30 - 2:45 - Tea break
2:45 - 3:15 - Forum: Media Reporting of Suicide: Issues Challenges and recommendation by Representatives from professional association, media and other stakeholders
3:15 - 3:45 - Open discussion on the recommendations for media professionals in the Philippines
3:45 - 4:00 - Summary/ Closing Remarks
About Dr. Erminia Colucci
Dr. Erminia Colucci is Lecturer and Research Program Coordinator at the Centre for International Mental Health (The University of Melbourne, Australia). She is a multi-arwarded researcher and academic whose works have been instrumental to improved understanding of the ethnocultural aspects of suicide and suicide prevention across different cultures, particularly in the Asian-Pacific region.
Aside from authoring and co-authoring several publications in numerous academic journals and books including the recently released book Suicide and Culture, Dr. Colucci is also in the editorial board of the only suicidology open-access journal (Suicidology Online) and chair of the International Association for Suicide Prevention (IASP) special interest group on suicide prevention in different cultural contexts.
Currently the book editor and organizer of an exhibition Understanding suicide from artists’ eyes in collaboration with Australian artists who have personally experienced suicide, Dr Colucci’s academic and research interests also include the cultural aspects of mental health and wellbeing, gender issues, human rights of the mentally ill and traditional/alternative healing, arts-based interventions, visual anthropology and cultural research methodology. Currently, she is completing a photo/film-documentary project on human rights situation of persons with mental illness in Indonesia.