. K. Latha; . K. S. Meena; . M. R. Pravitha; . Madhuporna Dasgupta; . S. K. Chaturvedi
Volume 10, Issue 5 , May 2020, , Pages 1-6
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Social media platforms are progressively developing as a rich source of masscommunication. Increasing mental health awareness with the help of social media can be a goodinitiative ...
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BACKGROUND: Social media platforms are progressively developing as a rich source of masscommunication. Increasing mental health awareness with the help of social media can be a goodinitiative to reach out to a large number of people in a short time frame. This study was conductedto understand the usefulness of social media platforms for health promotion.MATERIALS AND METHODS: It was a qualitative study to evaluate the effectiveness of socialmedia platforms in hosting health promotion campaigns in the field of mental health, which wasobserved over 5 months from May to September 2019 to reach more people for effective informationdissemination. The campaigns were as follows (1) The Buddies for Suicide Prevention: an onlinecampaign to create awareness about suicide prevention. The campaign included script writing,slogan writing, poster making, and short films making, organized for the general public who wereinterested to take part; (2) The #Iquitobacco was a 21‑day campaign with an idea of tobacco cessationin the community, conducted among social media viewers who were willing to participate; and (3)#Migrainethepainfultruth was yet another campaign conducted among the social media viewers whowere interested to participate. All the campaigns were conducted using two famous social mediaplatforms commonly used by young adults. Descriptive statistics such as frequency and proportionswere computed for the number of likes and shares.RESULTS: The Facebook and Instagram posts concerning all the campaigns brought about aconsiderable amount of reach to the targeted population. After the campaigns, the page reached toaround 10.3 k people (both fans and nonfans).CONCLUSIONS: Use of social media to conduct mental health campaigns is an effective initiativeas one can reach out to several people over a short time period. There is an increasing trend in theawareness of mental health with the effective use of digital media as a platform for disseminatinginformation.