LONDON, ON, May 16, 2016 /CNW/ - Journalists, specialists in mental health and members of the public will discuss how to improve media reporting of stories about mental illness among indigenous peoples at a town hall meeting in Edmonton on May 26.
The town hall will be held on the eve of the national conference of the Canadian Association of Journalists, in the same conference facility. It is being organized by the Canadian Journalism Forum on Violence and Trauma, whose journalist-to-journalist field guide Mindset: Reporting on Mental Health is widely used in newsrooms and journalism schools across the country.
The Mindset authors have decided to write a new chapter dealing specifically with advice for journalists working on stories involving mental illness among indigenous communities in Canada.
"The town hall meeting is the start of a process of consultation and research to that end," said Forum president Cliff Lonsdale. "Everyone is welcome to come and express their point of view. No tickets needed."
The discussion will be moderated by Duncan McCue, the Vancouver-based correspondent for CBC's flagship news program, The National.
A six-person panel will lead the debate. It includes psychiatry professor Andy Greenshaw, of the University of Alberta; Dr. Alika Lafontaine, president of the Indigenous Physicians Association of Canada; Emmy Manson, a mental health specialist with B.C.'s First Nations Health Authority; André Picard, public health columnist for The Globe and Mail; Karyn Pugliese, director of news and current affairs for APTN; and Paula Simons, columnist for The Edmonton Journal.
The meeting will take place in the Valley Ballroom at the Coast Edmonton Plaza Hotel, 10155-105 Street NW, Edmonton, starting at 7 p.m. The event is titled: Identity, Diversity and Crisis: Improving our reporting on mental illness among Canada's indigenous peoples.
Mindset (with its French equivalent En-Tête : reportage et santé mentale) is supported by the Mental Health Commission of Canada, through financing from Health Canada, and by CBC News. Editorial control rests with the Canadian Journalism Forum on Violence and Trauma, a charity best known for its concern for the physical and mental wellbeing of journalists themselves.
Our thanks to CNW Group for sponsoring this announcement.
SOURCE Canadian Journalism Forum on Violence and Trauma
See the Forum's website http://www.journalismforum.ca or contact Jane Hawkes, Executive Producer, Canadian Journalism Forum on Violence and Trauma, 1-519-852-4946, [email protected]
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