Entertainment Messaging

Through changing the conversation initiatives, the Action Alliance and its partners seek to improve messaging by focusing on three key audiences: news media, entertainment media, and public messengers.

Our Collaboration with the Entertainment Media

The way in which mental health and suicide are depicted in movies and other forms of entertainment can have either positive or negative effects on viewers. Research shows these depictions can influence behavior negatively, by contributing to contagion, or positively, by supporting help-seeking. Authentic and thoughtful portrayals reflecting best practice guidance can support suicide prevention efforts by preventing contagion, encouraging help-seeking, connecting those in crisis with the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline or other resources, and ultimately changing the way viewers think and talk about suicide.

National Recommendations for Depicting Suicide

Released in 2019, the Action Alliance's National Recommendations for Depicting Suicide aim to help members of the entertainment industry—content creators, scriptwriters, producers—tell more balanced and authentic stories involving suicide and suicide prevention.  

 

 

 

Mental Health Storytelling Coalition and Mental Health Media Guide

The Action Alliance is a member of the Mental Health Storytelling Coalition, a group of leading entertainment companies and mental health organizations and experts coming together to tackle how mental health is portrayed in entertainment content. In May 2021, the Mental Health Storytelling Coalition released the Mental Health Media Guide, a groundbreaking, comprehensive resource for content creators designed to help expand positive mental health portrayals.