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Annual “Media and Health Courses”: Examples how health professionals and journalists can improve communication

A natural and inevitable tension exists between journalists and groups of health professionals whose activities are the subject of widespread publicity. Information that is misleading or factually inaccurate reporting can cause distress to vulnerable groups, especially to mentally ill persons. Annual Media and Health Course has been organized in collaboration between Andrija Stampar School of Public Health and Croatian Journalists’ Association – Section of health care since 2002. Aim of the Course is to explore the issues of accurate and balanced communication in more depth. Mission of the course is simple yet hard to achieve, to improve collaboration between media experts and health professionals. Each year main theme of the course is defined according to current situation and events in Croatian healthcare policy and politics. Every year course gathers all journalists from the Croatian Journalists’ Association – Section of health care, Ministry of Health officials, Croatian Insurance Fund, hospital managers and physicians, representatives of pharmaceutical companies, representatives of health related NGO’s. During the Media and Health Course 2009 participants had a workshop about mental health related anti-stigma media campaigns which resulted with four anti-stigma videos. All videos were broadcasted on the TV show “Expertise” on local television (Zagreb television). Our experiences in the last nine years working with Croatian Journal Association – Section of health care journalists confirm the thesis that communication is essential. Problems often occur when we only see one side of the problem, our side. Team work and networking provide better understanding, enabling media experts and health professionals to experience the demands of each profession.

media; health professionals

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