Dec. 4, 2006

USC faculty and journalism school students 'speak out for mental health'
South Carolina Psychiatric Association teams with USC School of Journalism and Mass Communications and USC School of Medicine to design ad campaigns

An award-winning information campaign, The Faces of Schizophrenia, is the result of an innovative collaboration between the USC School of Journalism and Mass Communications (SJMC), the University of South Carolina School of Medicine (SOM) and the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) for the South Carolina Psychiatric Association (SCPA). SCPA officials announced the winning project recently at a formal ceremony at the Summit Club.

The print advertising and public information campaign was the result of three and a half months of work between faculty and students from the SJMC and psychiatrists from the SOM and MUSC. One of two final products from a grant to cross-educate health care providers and journalists in the stigma associated with mental illness, the campaign was designed to educate college students on the symptoms and warning signs for schizophrenia, an illness that affects nearly 1.1 percent of the population in South Carolina.

Because schizophrenia’s onset is most common in young adults, the team chose to focus its public information and advertising campaign on student media. It combines paid advertising, news releases and public service announcements to educate its publics about the disease. Part of a two-team competition, The Faces of Schizophrenia will actually be implemented in 2007.

A second campaign, entitled Depression Education was also designed by a collaborative team and centered around radio instead of print and targeted women ages 22-55 as its target audience. Unlike Faces of Schizophrenia, the depression program will have to await further funding to be implemented-a stated goal of the SCPA.

The cross disciplinary project was started early in 2006 and enlisted the help of many professionals including Dr. Deborah Leverette, M.D., then president of the SCPA; Dr. Shirley Staples Carter, Director of the SCSJMC; Jeffrey Ranta, Director of the Carolina Agency; Pat Jackson, Continuing Education Coordinator; Dr. Richard L. Frierson, MD, Incoming President of the SCPA; and members of the grant committee: Dr. Jennifer Pender, M.D., Dr. Richard L. Frierson, M.D., Dr. Shilpa Srinivasan, M.D., Dr. Jim Bouknight, Dr. Jennifer Heath, and Dr. J. T. Thornhill, M.D.

“This was an excellent project because of its interdisciplinary thrust and one that I hope we can do more of in the future,” said Shirley Staples Carter, Ph.D., Director of the USC School of Journalism.

“I am very pleased with the results of both campaigns,” said Dr. Nioaka Campbell, MD Grant Coordinator and Vice President of the SCPA. “We are actively seeking additional funds to use the second campaign in the future, they were very competitive, well researched and we had a hard time deciding between the two projects.”

At a kick off meeting, members of the faculty of the three schools and special guests presented on topics including schizophrenia, depression, ADHD, elements of a campaign, the creative process and media buying. From there teams were divided up and each chose an illness and a media channel for their campaign.

“Each team was charged with developing a comprehensive campaign including primary and secondary research, strategic objectives and tactics, implementation, evaluation, a timeline and an budget,” said Jeff Ranta, organizer of the SJMC efforts.

“In the end we got two great campaigns and I am very proud of what each team accomplished!” said Dr. Deborah Leverette, M.D., one of the key organizers.

Team members for each campaign are listed below: