Promoting Mental Health Through Media: Messages From the APA Annual Meeting

Mena Mirhom, MD, FAPA's session, "Engaging Media to Promote Lifestyle and Mental Health: A Training for Psychiatry Fellows," was a hit with residents at this year's American Psychiatric Association (APA) Annual Meeting.

"Any time you have trainees listening, that always brightens up a session," said Mirhom.

Mirhom and his copresenters took the opportunity to discuss Columbia's media training course for fellows. For 1 year, public psychiatry fellows work on site throughout New York City, learning how to best engage with media, whether that is traditional, print, or social media.

"What we see is, throughout that year, folks take in a lot of incredible information, but don't always know how to share it," said Mirhom. "We give them some best practices."

Earlier this month, Daanish Khorasani, MD, shared a bit of his own story with studying media under Mirhom: "During this rotation, I have been writing, helping produce content, attending news segments both in-studio and virtually, contributing to and learning more about podcasting, and learning the ropes of media communication, from pitch to post... I have never learned this much about reaching people this quickly in my entire residency."¹

The session shared case scenarios, then prompted attendees to respond to misinformation: How do you combat half-truth? What are the best ways that you can respond during a TV interview when there's a camera in your face? What do you say? How do you say it in a concise, clear, relevant way?

You can learn more about Mirhom's media best practices in his new column, "Media Mastery With Dr Mena."²

Dr Mirhom is the immediate past president of the New York County Psychiatric Society, an assistant professor of psychiatry and codirector of the PPF Express Program at Columbia University, and the chief wellbeing officer at Athletes for Hope.

References

1. Khorasani D. Why you should do a media literacy elective in psychiatry residency. Psychiatric Times. May 16, 2025. https://www.psychiatrictimes.com/view/why-you-should-do-a-media-literacy-elective-in-psychiatry-residency

2. Mirhom M. Protecting professional boundaries in the digital age. Psychiatric Times. March 13, 2025. https://www.psychiatrictimes.com/view/protecting-professional-boundaries-in-the-digital-age