COMMITTEE REPORTS Continued.

PSYCHIATRY & THE MEDIA

Present: Carol Bernstein, Jack Drescher (chairs) Jeff Freedman, Chris Heath

Zoom: Peter Kramer, Gail Saltz

Fellow attending: Ashvin Sood (Zoom)

Guests: John Burton, MD, possible new member, former GAP Fellow, Co-Chair, Committee on Public Information of APsaA, podcaster Amy Franklin, APA Publicist

GAP Blogs on Psychology Today.com

• Possible online Zoom training for GAP members

• Media training (Saltz, Drescher, Franklin)

• Letter-writing (Freedman)

• Tik-Tok (Sood)

• Blog writing (Drescher)

• 30th Anniversary of Listening to Prozac (Kramer)

Blogs: 4 published to date, 5 in inventory which gets us through February with 2 blog postings per month; many committees expressed interest in doing Blogs.

Online Zoom Trainings: Will discuss details further with entire committees at our January Zoom meeting.

Audience for blog: practicing psychiatrists, psychiatry resident, psychologists, training directors, general public and other mental health professionals.

Audience for online training: GAP members

Focus Of Work Accomplished

DURING THE MEETING:

• Some editing of blog submissions

• Discussion of publicist’s value to the organization

• Discussion of branding

• Plans for between meeting work:

• The Media Committee regularly uses Zoom meetings between retreats.

• Focus for next meeting: Evaluating impact of Blog and evaluating online Zoom training sessions done to date

• Any ways in which members can be helpful? If committees could write more blogs and increase our inventory, that would be great.

• It would be also helpful if any new GAP publication is announced both on the Listserv and with a direct communication to the Media Committee in the hopes that we can publicize event.

PSYCHIATRY & RELIGION

Members attending: Brian Fallon MD, Salman Majeed MD, Keith Meador MD, Joseph Merlino MD, Jenifer Nields MD, Michael Norko MD, MAR (chair), James Phillips MD, David Saunders MD, PhD

Fellow attending: Hunter Neely MD

Project Information

1. Faith Communities and the Well-Being of LGBT Youth (White Paper on the importance of faith communities in efforts to reduce suicide and other negative mental health outcomes for LGBT youth)

Project leader: Dr. Norko

The booklet remains available for free download on the GAP home page. Dr. Norko has updated The resources and data for 2022, but this needs to be professionally set. Hard copies of the version on the GAP website are also available from Dr. Norko. A reporter from the National Catholic Reporter has expressed interest in describing the booklet in a future article. Dr. Norko continues to reach out to various faith communities to make them aware of the product.

Work accomplished during meeting: Reviewed current status.

Plans for between meeting work:

If interest warrants, Dr. Norko will fund the setting of the Revised edition. If funds become available for printing the second edition, that can also be done. Dr. Norko will continue to promote the product to faith communities. Dr. Merlino suggested contacting the Matthew Shepard Foundation, which supports the continued touring of the play “The Laramie Project” as part of its educational efforts. They offer assistance and support to educational and religious institutions.