Public Information

Dacia Morris, Public Information Officer

The Public Information Department represents the Institute to the community at large in a clear, comprehensible and positive way. New and exciting research findings are communicated to the public via direct communications with the media interviews with researchers and through the P.I. Newsletter, a quarterly publication sponsored jointly be Psychiatric Institute and the Department of Psychiatry at the Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons.

The department also responds to frequent inquiries about the clinical and research work at the Institute from the general public, the media, New York State legislators and scientists and professionals at other institutions. Media people regularly approach the department with an interest in the work of a particular scientist or to get an expert’s opinion on a specific psychiatric disorder as well as its causes and treatment.

During 2001 and extending until March of 2002, we informed the public about research in Alzheimer’s disease, eating disorders, schizophrenia, gambling, adolescent depression and nicotine dependence, among others. Expert researchers have acted as “voices of reason,” appearing in the NY Times, the Washington Post and Newsweek, etc. and on television programs/networks like CBS Evening News, MSNBC, BBC, NY1 and Ch. 7 Eyewitness News. Published papers of note that drew strong media interest included Harold Sackeim’s study on reducing the ECT relapse rate, Dolores Malaspina’s study on paternal age and schizophrenia, Randall Marshall’s research on post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), Timothy Walsh’s work on placebo response and Jeffrey Johnson and Patricia Cohen’s research on TV viewing and violence. Still other stories resulted from events that affected us locally and nationally: the Texas case involving a mother on trial for killing her children resulted in interviews with Margaret Spinelli, an expert in post-partum depression; the 9/11 attacks drew widespread interest post-traumatic stress disorder as well as coping with grief and experts—such as Randall Marshall, Jaime Carcamo and Raphael Campeas—were called on to offer insight and expert commentary in local, national and international media.

The Department is also responsible for a newsletter called the P.I. Local. The Local, a quarterly periodical with special issues published as needed, is distributed only at the Institute and carries information that is considered important for P.I. employees to know. For example, past issues have focused on educating employees about the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) survey as well as relaying information regarding state or federally mandated initiatives like the Mental Health Automated Records System (MHARS).

Still another aspect of public information which is becoming ever more important as a way of communicating information generally and, in particular, the work of the Institute, is P.I.’s web page, www.nyspi.org . The Department acts as the editor of the web page, which is still under construction.

As an adjunct to its general public information function, the Department has been involved in subject recruitment, advising investigators on brochures describing their studies, reviewing advertising for volunteers to participate in studies and helping them place their ads on radio, TV or in newspapers.