Radio phone-in for mental health
A radio phone-in programme for mental
health education and promotion
Richard Laugharne FRCPsych, Rohit Shankar MRCPsych, Rosie Dunkley, Laurence Reed, Sarah Fisher BA,
Jonathan Barnett, Philip Brigham PhD
There is evidence that mass-media campaigns can educate the public, influence health
behaviour and may reduce stigma. In this article, the authors describe how they initiated
a new local radio phone-in programme covering different mental health problems and
evaluated the benefits to members of the public who called the programme.
M ass media campaigns have
been utilised to educate the
public about health messages, such
as encouraging young people to stop
smoking1 and the promotion of sun
protection.2 One survey found that
75 per cent of respondents rely on
media coverage when making
healthcare decisions.3 A systematic
review concluded that mass media
interventions have an important role
in influencing the use of healthcare
services and in providing healthcare
information to the public.4
Psychiatrists have been encour-
aged to get involved in public
health.5 The public tends to trust
doctors and health professionals
for advice on health education,
promotion and prevention.
A significant proportion of the
public listens to local radio. In a
population of 530 000, our local
BBC radio station, Radio Cornwall,
has 180 000 people who tune in at
least weekly, representing 34 per
cent of the population.
Two authors (RS and RL)
received a Beddoes Fellowship
from the South West Strategic
Health Authority to facilitate 12
radio phone-in programmes over
one year.6 The 35 consultants in
the local mental health trust
agreed to participate in these pro-
grammes so that a range of con-
sultants could give their expertise.
We planned to combine a consult-
ant psychiatrist with an experi-
www.progressnp.com
z Original research
enced non-medical clinician who
was an expert in mental health.
The aim of this project was to
educate the public about mental
health conditions, the help that is
available and local services. We also
aimed to evaluate the programmes
through feedback from the mem-
bers of the public who called in.
Programmes
The programmes were part of the
Laurence Reed programme on
BBC Radio Cornwall, which broad-
casts between 12-3pm on week-
days. The mental health phone-in
was planned between 1-2pm on the
first Wednesday of the month. A
five-minute pre-recorded patient
experience started the pro-
gramme, following which the two
professionals were asked questions
by Laurence Reed and then
responded to callers.
The two professionals were a
consultant psychiatrist and a non-
medical clinician with experience
in mental health. The programmes
focused on the following areas:
• dementia
• depression
• alcohol problems
• eating disorders
• perinatal psychiatry
• learning disabilities
• psychosis
• deliberate self-harm
• post-traumatic stress disorder
• childhood ADHD
Progress in Neurology and Psychiatry September/October 2013
• bipolar disorder
• obsessive-compulsive disorder
The programmes were success-
ful in engaging the attention of lis-
teners. Even though they were
planned for 60 minutes, they almost
invariably overran to at least 90 min-
utes. Callers were mostly people who
had experienced the health prob-
lem or carers, and lively discussions
ensued. Approximately six callers
were accommodated in each pro-
gramme. Members of the public also
sent in emails. Ten consultant psy-
chiatrists and 12 other clinicians par-
ticipated in the first 12 programmes.
To complement the phone-in
programmes, a trainee psychiatrist
wrote an information sheet, which
was posted on the BBC Radio
Cornwall website. This gave infor-
mation about each condition, details
of self-help organisations as well as
contact numbers for local services.
Evaluation
A member of the Public Health
team at the Primary Care Trust
phoned callers after the pro-
grammes. A total of 59 callers
agreed to participate in a telephone
questionnaire. They were asked
questions as to the value of the pro-
gramme. In response to the ques-
tion, ‘Did the programme achieve
its aim?’ 57 out of 59 (97 per cent)
callers replied yes with two saying
no. Further questions and responses
are shown in Table 1.
37
Original research z Radio phone-in for mental health
Question Mean score
Was the programme interesting? 4.66
Were the presenters informative? 4.46
Have you learned more about the subject
under discussion? 4.31
Were the case studies useful? 4.53
Table 1. Participant responses (n=59) to the telephone question-
naire (out of a maximum score of 5; 1=low, 5=high)
Positive
‘Great presenters, very useful programme’
‘Excellent programme - need more of same kind’
‘Knowing there is help out there [is helpful]’
‘Very professional’
‘Extremely helpful and interesting’
Negative
‘Felt the presenters were too medical, needed
someone else to talk about the underlying
problems other than tablets that can help’
‘Felt as though advice was rehearsed; read off a leaflet’
‘Three sons alcoholic - unable to learn more’
‘Adult help group, not just child, needed [for ADHD]’
Table 2. Specific comments made by participants during the
telephone interview
Of the 59 people interviewed
on the telephone, 61 per cent had
access to the Internet (which is
lower than most population sur-
veys), 29 per cent accessed the
Radio Cornwall website, 17 per
cent accessed the Radio Cornwall
Facebook page and 2 per cent
used Twitter. This suggests that
fewer of those listening to Radio
Cornwall have access to the more
recent media innovations than the
general population, and hence
radio programmes are needed to
reach them. Those without access
are likely to be a more deprived
and older demographic group.
Some of the qualitative com-
ments received during the telephone
interview are shown in Table 2.
It was emphasised that individ-
ual care could not be commented
upon, although this had to be stated
when callers presented their own
clinical stories. This avoided the risk
of the clinician criticising colleagues
when callers were not happy with
38 Progress in Neurology and Psychiatry September/October 2013
their care. When the 12 initial pro-
grammes ended, BBC Cornwall
decided to keep these monthly pro-
grammes; they are now well into
their third year and ongoing.
Discussion
This radio phone-in programme
on mental health issues was of ben-
efit to callers, which hopefully
reflects benefit for listeners as well.
The callers to this programme in
Cornwall often had no access to the
Internet and did not use the latest
communications technologies, and
therefore local radio is a vital
source of information. As local
radio can inform the public about
local services, this can be an effec-
tive health promotion vehicle and
can educate the public and reduce
stigma. Recent evidence shows that
the audience for local radio is large
and growing. Details of local serv-
ices can easily be publicised.
A further indication of the suc-
cess of these programmes is the
request from BBC Radio Cornwall
that they continue. Since the end of
the initial 12-month period, a fur-
ther 17 programmes have been
delivered monthly and they are con-
tinuing. In addition, the local acute
hospital trust has been asked to par-
ticipate in similar programmes on
physical health conditions.
A recent study has found that
in countries with less stigmatising
attitudes to mental illness, people
with mental illness were less self-
stigmatising and perceived less dis-
crimination.7 The authors of this
study encourage the targeting of
the general public through mass
anti-stigma campaigns. Mass-media
campaigns have been shown to
produce positive health behaviours
across large populations.8
We feel that this radio phone-
in programme has contributed to
public education and mental
health promotion in Cornwall. It
is a productive way of improving
public mental health and destig-
matising mental illness. The clini-
cians who have participated have
enjoyed the experience and felt
they have developed a new confi-
dence in communicating through
the media. The project was a final-
ist in the BMJ Group Awards 2012
in Healthcare Communications.
Declaration of interests
Cornwall Partnership NHS
Foundation Trust received funding
for this project through a Beddoes
Fellowship from the South West
Strategic Health Authority.
Dr Laugharne and Dr Shankar are
Consultant Psychiatrists, Sarah Fisher is
Communications Officer and Jonathan
Barnett was Business Development
Officer at Cornwall Partnership NHS
Foundation Trust; Philip Brigham is
Public Health Lead for Mental Health
and Learning Disabilities, Public
Health England (Cornwall); and Rosie
Dunkley and Laurence Reed work for
BBC Radio Cornwall
References
1. Sowden AJ, Arblaster L. Mass media inter-
ventions for preventing smoking in young
people. Cochrane Database of Systematic
Reviews 1998;Issue 4. Art. No.: CD001006. 2.
Smith BJ, Ferguson C, McKenzie J, et al .
Impacts from repeated mass media campaigns
to promote sun protection in Australia. Health
Promotion International 2002;17:51-60.
3. Cavill N, Bauman A. Changing the way peo-
ple think about health-enhancing physical
activity: do mass media campaigns have a
role? J Sports Sciences 2004;22:771-90.
4. Grilli R, Ramsay C, Minozzi S. Mass media
interventions: effects on health services utili-
sation. Cochrane Database of Systematic
Reviews 2001;Issue 1. Art. No.: CD000389.
5. Royal College of Psychiatrists. No Health with-
out Public Mental Health: the case for action
(parliamentary briefing). London: RCPsych, 2010.
6. Scally GJ, Imtiaz JA, Bethune RM, et al .
Helping clinicians improve the health of their
communities: The Beddoes Fellows Programme.
J Behavioural Health 2012;1:167-71.
7. Evans-Lacko S, Brohan E, Mojtabai R, et al.
Association between public views of mental
illness and self-stigma among individuals with
mental illness in 14 European countries.
Psychol Med 2012;42(8):1741-52.
8. Wakefield MA, Loken B, Hornik RC. Use of
mass media campaigns to change health
behaviour. Lancet 2010;376:1261-71.
www.progressnp.com