Butler embraces social-media tools

Aiming to engage a broader audience in discussions of mental-health issues, Butler Hospital is using Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and its own Web site to create a “virtual community” where people can ask questions and interact and learn from one another.
To help get the discussion going, Butler has launched an “Ask the Experts” campaign focused on child and adolescent mental health. The campaign, which runs through October, allows people to submit questions through the Web site, Facebook or Twitter and get answers from clinicians from Butler’s child and adolescent programs.
Already, the experts have answered questions such as “What is the difference between Asperger’s syndrome and autism?” and “Why is Ritalin still prescribed for ADHD in light of side effects and bad reviews?”
The hospital is also posting short interviews and webcasts to educate the public about topics such as autism. And it’s using social media to open up its campus to people who may not see it very often, if at all. Recent photo features on Facebook, for example, showed the hospital’s canine therapy team and the colorful fall landscape on the hospital grounds.
“Social media is changing the way people get information about health concerns and offers the field of psychiatry, which has long been stigmatized, a great way of sharing information and engaging the community in discussions about brain health, just like people talk openly about any other health issues,” said Patti Melaragno, director of marketing and public affairs.
Butler Hospital, a member of the Care New England health system, is the only private, nonprofit psychiatric and substance abuse hospital serving adults, adolescents and children in Rhode Island and southeastern New England. It is also the flagship hospital for the Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior at the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University. For more information, visit www.butler.org, or follow it on Twitter: @butlerhospital.