Changing the Conversation: B4Stage4

#B4Stage4 Program 2015 Recap Video

"CHANGING THE CONVERSATION: B4Stage4" -A NEWS PROGRAM IN PARTNERSHIP WITH ITN PRODUCTIONS

In the second year of a unique communications partnership, MHA and ITN Productions are producing a news and current affairs-style program that investigates the progress and raised awareness of mental health in the United States. The collaboration continues to promote "Before Stage 4" awareness; coming off the 2015 program examining the mental health challenges facing the country and raising awareness to promote online screening, the collaboration this year hopes to highlight the courageous and compelling stories and individuals driving change around the country every day.

“Changing The Conversation: B4Stage4” is an in-depth, online program specifically aimed at changing perceptions of mental health across the nation, through shifting perceptions and the progress MHA and its partners have been making in communication, positioning & advocacy throughout the past year.

Key industry interviews

This news-style program will feature interviews, news items and editorial profiles of leaders, mental health ambassadors, and key organizations in the sector. Approximately 1 in 5 Americans lives with mental illness, but despite this, their portrayal is too often negative and misrepresented.

This program gives a complete analysis and cross-section across industry, media, political influencers, health care providers and patients themselves. Brought together through the insights, personal experiences and real stories of people and organizations that are driving change, advocacy and policy, this program is a look at how everyone is ultimately responsible for challenging the perception of mental health in America. Not just people that are directly affected, but attitudes and understanding throughout the nation.

From ITN

ITN Productions’ Head of Industry News, Simon Shelley said: "ITN Productions is delighted to be partnering with Mental Health America for a second year, particularly as a media partner that can actively lead the way in communicating perception change for mental health conditions."

From MHA

Paul Gionfriddo, CEO of Mental Health America, said: “MHA is excited to partner once again this year with ITN Productions on this important project to help change the conversation about mental health. MHA was founded by someone who declared we must fight in the open; it’s time for all of us to speak up about mental illness, and fight together in the open. This project is an example of how we do that, and MHA looks forward to this collaboration.”

The program will be premiered at MHA's 2016 Annual Conference in June. The program's next phase is an extensive online communications campaign that includes medical organisations, associations, healthcare providers, health systems, and other organized systems of care; as well as journalists, writers and bloggers in the sector.

#B4Stage4 Program 2015 Full Program

How to participate

For more information, or to participate in the program, please contact ITN Productions’ Industry News team:

David Ives
Email: david.ives@itn.co.uk
Telephone: (+44) 207 430 4266

About ITN Productions
ITN Productions is ITN’s bespoke production hub producing creative and commercially valuable content for the corporate, commercial, broadcast and digital sectors. Industry News forms part of this offering and is a communications tool for leading industry bodies and national associations produced in a broadcast news program format, including interviews, news items and sponsored editorial profiles. For more information visit: www.itnproductions.co.uk

About Mental Health America
Mental Health America (MHA) - founded in 1909 - is the nation's leading community-based nonprofit dedicated to helping Americans achieve wellness by living mentally healthier lives. MHA’s work is guided by its Before Stage 4 (#B4Stage4) philosophy – that mental health conditions should be treated long before they reach the most critical points in the disease process—and driven by its commitment to promote mental health as a critical part of overall wellness, including prevention for all, early identification and intervention for those at risk, integrated health, behavioral health and other services for those who need them, and recovery as a goal.