Public relations in psychiatry – advertising for crazy people?

Author: Beate Lisofsky

Certainly a provocative question; advertising is a marketing term, and, when it comes to (self) help, sufferers and helpers tend to find it unseemly. This negative image also rubs off on public relations work (PR), although in the context of psychiatry, unlike in advertising, it is not about marketing a product, but about building long-term and sustained relationships. The same skepticism is shared by other areas of social work.

Public relations work in psychiatry is traditionally also strongly associated with lobbying. The goal is to correct the stigmatization of the mentally ill and the entire psychiatric system and improve its public image. In this interpretation, public relation work is defined more as contact with the media, which apparently build this image and keep it alive.

Everyone does agree that psychiatry has a negative image, and the goal of public relations work is to improve it. Beyond that, PR can serve to introduce a facility or self-help group to the public and foster acceptance in the neighborhood. Finally, the mentally ill themselves are a target group for public relations work; a fact that has thus far been too much neglected.

All this implies two requirements of PR and PR workers:

1. Public relations work is nothing other than informing the public of one’s own activities.
2. Public relations work is anti-stigma work, a fight against preconceptions and discrimination of sufferers of mental illness, their families, and the field of psychiatry as a whole.

Public relations work is lobbying work

According to Brauer (1993), public relations work essentially has four fields of activity:

• Media work for relationships with news makers
• Working with the public to establish dialogue with (potential) users, partners, and other target groups
• Internal information within a company or association (employee communication)
• Association (policy) work geared mainly toward decision makers in societal and socio-political structures and often consisting of tedious committee work

Even those of us who are (justly) convinced of the meaningfulness of our activities and their benefit for the common good should be aware of one of the fundamental insights about the information age:

The world is not shaped by facts, but by opinions about facts.

Public relations work cannot change facts retroactively. However, attitudes about facts can change, and in a long process of dialogue, new facts can be generated.

The goal of public relations work is to

• provide information about facts in an objective, understandable, current, and dialogue-oriented manner,
• maintain information exchange with all internal and external partners, and
• earn and affirm the partners’ support and trust.

How do you earn the public’s support and trust?

Though this may not sound very likeable: it’s best to do it systematically.

Before making contact with the press or the public, some aspects should be considered so that the contact will be meaningful for everyone:

• What is our current situation?
• How are we perceived?
• What are our strengths, what are our weaknesses?

In addition to evaluating one’s own situation, it is also helpful, just like in “normal life”, to think about who the target of your message is – and what message is most urgent.

• What target groups are important to us?
• What goals are initially most important?

A group’s own members, representatives of associations and institutions, employees of communal facilities, politicians, and journalists are all target groups of public relations work. Though it is crucial to continuously maintain contacts to all important target groups: not all of them are equally important at particular stages of the work.

Especially at the beginning of press and public relations work, a group should not set the bar too high. Contact and dialogue must be cultivated continuously. And another extremely important – though often neglected – facet is internal communications.

A group’s own or “friendly” units must be supplied with information as well. So much depends on clarifying these questions, such as the selection of communication tools and the motivation and perseverance of PR workers, be they professionals or committed laypersons.

In addition to personal conviction and persuasiveness, systematic public relations work also requires lots of detailed effort that should not be underestimated.

Some questions that should be considered deliberately and in advance are for example:

• What communication tools (flyers, press releases, brochures, own magazine, web site, events, etc.) are especially suited to help us reach what goals?
• What media are of essential importance for what goals (local press, specialized publications, radio, TV, internet)?
• Are there partners whom we can join to pursue a particular initiative or goal?
• What are our human and financial resources?

Without putting some serious thought into these aspects, failure and the associated anger and frustration among those involved are virtually pre-programmed.

It doesn’t always have to be the traditional open house culminating in a bake sale and a bazaar of home-made wooden toys. Use your imagination and have the courage to try something new. Open exchange and a looking beyond your own horizons can’t hurt, either.