The Opportunity
Funded by the Federal Government, Emerging Minds is dedicated to advancing the mental health and emotional wellbeing of Australian infants, children, adolescents and their families.
It develops mental health policy, services, interventions, training, programs and resources to upskill those working with infants, children and their parents to recognise how a child’s mental health is affected by their parent relationships and family dynamics.
With educational resources for practitioners and partnerships with key bodies in place, Emerging Minds is striving to draw media attention to the mental health issues affecting infants and children.
communikate et al was appointed to develop and deliver a national media relations program.
Our key objectives are to:
- Raise awareness of how experiences in childhood impact on a child’s emotional and social development
- Raise awareness of the need for all professionals working with families to consider the child and their mental health
- Position Emerging Minds as the go-to commentator on infant and child mental health
Our Approach
As an emerging topic and a newly established organisation, we needed to build the foundations for a meaningful and sustained media outreach program.
Our strategy has involved:
- Developing media backgrounders on child mental health and Emerging Minds
- Conducting media training for Emerging Minds’ key spokespeople
- Using our knowledge of media agendas to identify key media targets
- Facilitating introductions to key journalists
- Identifying media angles to leverage Emerging Minds’ resources
The Outcome
In the space of a year, communikate et al has introduced Emerging Minds to a wide range of media, securing more than 150 articles published across professional journals targeting GPs, educators and relationship counsellors and psychologists, and mainstream media.
The coverage has focused on infant and child mental health, the factors that can affect it and the resources Emerging Minds has developed to support parents and practitioners. Coverage has appeared across radio, television, print and online media, including:
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- Radio National
- ABC Radio
- 2GB
- The Age
- The Sydney Morning Herald
- Today Tonight
- The Advertiser
- The Sunday Mail
- National syndication across News Corp Australia mastheads
