By working with the media, you can bring exposure to the vitally important issue of suicide prevention, your services, and the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, 1-800-273-TALK. Building and maintaining relationships with reporters and assignment editors at your local newspaper and TV stations can be valuable to your public education, outreach, and funding efforts.

Practice the 4 B?s
The media materials contained in this kit are tools to help you practice the ?4 B?s? of media relations:

• Be prepared
• Be an educator
• Be quotable
• Be in control.

Start Now
Do not wait until you need to get a story or event covered to introduce yourself to a reporter. Instead, get to know the local reporters who cover health, public policy, or any other topic linked to your suicide prevention efforts. Then, choose one news contact at each media outlet and build a rapport by remaining in contact regularly, developing consistent message points, and becoming a ?go-to? source for timely, reliable information.

Create a media list of names and contact information (e.g., phone and fax numbers and mailing and e-mail addresses) for each reporter, especially the health or science reporter. You also may want to check with your local library or bookstore for information about media directories of daily and weekly newspapers, television stations, radio stations, newswire services, Internet news outlets, magazines, newsletters, and business trade publications in your community.

Some examples of media directories include Bacon?s MediaSource (www.bacons.com) and the News Media Yellow Book (www.leadershipdirectories.com/nmyb.htm). Use your local phone book or the Internet to supplement your media list. You will need this information to send out your media materials.

Do Your Homework
In the news business, timing is everything, so you will want to look for opportunities to link your story to local, regional, or national events or observances (e.g., National Suicide Prevention Week, National Depression Screening Day, National Mental Health Month). Doing so will make your ?pitch? to reporters easier while helping them do their jobs. Keep in mind that reporters operate under tight deadlines, and they rely on mental health professionals like you for stories, information, and interviews.

Develop Message Points
Message points are a useful tool for both internal and external communications related to your suicide prevention programs and services. The ?boilerplate? (fill-in-the-blank) message points (MS Word) provided in this kit focus on current suicide statistics and information about the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline network and public education campaign.

You can customize and refine these message points into shorter messages that can be used as talking points or responses during print or broadcast interviews. You also can use them for developing your own media, marketing, partnership development, and presentation materials.

Create a ?Backgrounder?
As the name implies, a ?backgrounder,? or background information sheet, is a one-page resource that provides historical information about an organization and its services. The sample background information (MS Word) sheet in this kit can be used to provide your community with an overview of the Lifeline network, National Suicide Prevention Initiative, President?s New Freedom Commission on Mental Health, and National Strategy for Suicide Prevention.

You may want to include this backgrounder as a component of your initial Lifeline public education materials, or you can use it as a guide to develop your own. Organizations often include a backgrounder in media and information kits. You also may distribute copies as ?leave-behind? flyers in doctors? offices, faith organizations, and other gathering places in your community to inform people about the Lifeline network.

Write an Effective Press Release
A timely, well-written press release is an indispensable component of an effective media outreach plan. As you prepare for your suicide prevention activities, you may want to distribute a press release announcing your organization?s most important or newsworthy event. Whether you use the sample press release (MS Word) provided in this kit or write your own, below are some examples of newsworthy activities:

• Launch a new public education campaign.
• Publicize the local impact of a national news event—such as National Suicide Prevention Week in September (www.suicidology.org), National Depression Screening Day in October (www.mentalhealthscreening.org), and National Mental Health Month in May (www.nmha.org/may/index.cfm)—and your local angle on that activity.
• Begin a new type of service or make significant changes to existing services.

You will want to distribute your press release a day or two before your event to your media contacts by fax or e-mail so that you have time to do followup phone calls to ensure receipt. Note that it is prudent to send your press release on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, or Thursdays as items sent Friday through Monday tend to be lost in the weekend shuffle.

Educate the Media
It is important to remember that reporters are ?generalists? who cover a wide range of topics and may not have an indepth knowledge of suicide prevention. That is why you should view the relationships you cultivate with the media as partnerships?you provide useful information to them and their audience, and they provide access to the public you want to reach.

As part of your efforts to educate the media regarding your suicide prevention efforts, you may want to share the following recommendations related to suicide contagion and the coverage of suicide from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Reporting should be concise and factual as the likelihood of suicide contagion may be increased by the following actions:

• Presenting simplistic explanations for suicide
• Engaging in repetitive, ongoing, or excessive reporting of suicide in the news
• Providing sensational coverage of suicide
• Reporting ?how-to? descriptions of suicide
• Presenting suicide as a tool for accomplishing certain ends
• Glorifying suicide or persons who complete suicide
• Focusing on the suicide completer?s positive characteristics.

For more information regarding suicide contagion and the reporting of suicide, go to this link on CDC?s Web site: http://wonder.cdc.gov/wonder/prevguid/m0031539/m0031539.asp.

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