Course for Journalists and Media students

SCARF in association with SANGATH Bhopal (www.sangath.in), is launching an online digital course of 4 weeks duration on Mental Health reporting, for practicing journalists and students of journalism, media and communication in India. This same course would then be contextualized and adapted for use by partner organizations in Nepal, Bangladesh and Afghanistan.

• This is part of the capacity building component of ESSENCE (an acronym for Enabling translation ofScience to Service to ENhance Depression CarE) , a 5 year long US National Institute of Mental health (NIMH) funded implementation and research Project.
• This is a first of its kind initiative focusing on mental health reporting in the country and is offered free of cost to the learner.
• The course is available from 24th May 2021.
• Last date for application will be 18th May 2021.
• Link to register : http://bit.ly/MEDIABATCH3
• Mental health reporting is a niche area which needs expertise and skills to strike a balance between being informative and educative while also being responsible and sensitive. This course aims to enable these skills in media professionals. Good reporting of mental health issues will help to improve awareness, advocacy and thereby pave way for stigma reduction and encourage help seeking.
• The coursework comprises of self-guided modules with recorded lectures, resource materials and self-assessments. The SANGATH and SCARF teams will offer support during the course through weekly interactive webinars.
• The course is currently available in English only. It will be made available in few regional languages at a later date.
• We hope this course will offer an avenue for young and aspiring journalists to take an interest in mental health reporting, and provide an opportunity for established journalists to engage with the issue of mental health reporting
• Those who successfully complete the course will be eligible to apply for a 12 month part-time paid fellowship in mental health reporting.

For Further information, kindly contact
Dr.R.Mangala @ 9444027388 /mangala@localhost

ABOUT ESSENCE

The overall goal of Project ESSENCE is to bridge the science to service gap and strengthen an existing collaborative network of institutions in South Asia (Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Nepal) by generating knowledge on effective and cost-effective training and implementation support methods for scaling up of evidence-based interventions for mental disorders, and building capacity in a range of key stakeholders to enhance the conduct of implementation research, the dissemination of its findings, and the uptake of this evidence in policy and programs, ultimately resulting in reduction of treatment gap for mental disorders.

The following are the selected members of ESSENCE Fellowships