Ama Baad: Mental Health & Media: the great forgotten topic?

Doctor Imen Ben Abid, psychiatrist in Tunisia, will be the guest of Zeina Ramadan, Palestinian journalist and founder of FEEL, to answer your questions.

Join Thursday, June 4th at 4pm GMT:

• 5pm in Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco
• 6pm in Libya and Egypt
• 7pm in Lebanon, Jordan, Palestine, Syria, and Yemen

Mental Health & Media: the great forgotten topic?

Mental health issues are overlooked in the Arab media because they remain taboo. They spark off embarrassment, even shame for those who suffer from them and Media tend to avoid this topic, mainly because they don't know how to talk about it. However, breaking down the journalists' barriers in front of this topic is greatly needed and it can be done by helping them finding the relevant words to accurately inform their audience. Indeed, the lockdown measures set in many countries because of Covid-19 has impacted the mental health of thousands of people even if we cannot determine precisely how much, and for this reason Media have to carry out their task of popularization of psychiatry for the general public interest. If mental illness is like any other illness, how to talk about it without bias or sensationalism?

Host:
Zeina Ramadan (Palestine), audio content creator and founder of « FEEL », a project launched two years ago in partnership with Kitab Sawti platform.
FEEL aims to raise awareness about mental health issues through stories in Arabic language available in podcast.

Guest:
Dr Imen Ben Abid (Tunis) psychiatrist resident at Razi-Manouba Hospital and cofounder of the Tunisian Activists Association for Mental Health.
Imen Ben Abid is passionate about public health and is an activist defending the right to health in Tunisia.

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The aim of AMA BAAD is to stimulate collective thinking and good practices sharing among arabic speaking journalists.