Date: 2017
Organization: American Psychiatric Association
Location: Washington, DC
Timeline: 2 weeks
Role: Writer, Editor
SUMMARY
While watching a series about teen suicide, I found that there was a lack of healthy options for mental health treatment. I decided a blog could help to address some of the unanswered questions.
PROBLEM
Stigma of mental illness is a huge barrier to adequate treatment and care. One one hand, showing realistic portrayals of how people live with mental illness is an important part to help dismantle ableism. To be most effective, we need to make sure that we are also showing healthy, realistic treatment options so people know how to get the help they need.
SOLUTION
The show has a large fanbase on social media and large online publishers were discussing how the show addresses mental health issues. In most cases, those articles were stating how the show falls short. It seemed like there was a great opportunity for APA to give answers to issues that were left open-ended. We created a blog post that lives online, where people are searching for information on this web-based series. With appropriate keywords and search engine optimization, we can help to get this important information to people who need it.
OUTCOME
Although the blog post was published two weeks into the month, it received more visits than any other blog post in April. It received 50% more visits than the second most visited blog post.
