Talk to us: Twitterchat Friday at 11:00 a.m. CT
Friday, April 11 at 11:00 a.m. central time, I’ll be hosting a Twitterchat with reporter Sean Powers @SeanCPow at the hashtag #WILLchat to talk about mental illness and the associated stigmas that exist in Illinois.
When we started work on WILL’s series “Unmet Needs: living with mental illness in central Illinois,” we wanted to find out why there were such long wait times for people to get an appointment with a psychiatrist in the area. At some hospitals in the area, initial wait times to see a doctor are at least six months. But as we’ve investigated that story, we’ve developed more questions. What’s it like to live with mental illness in central Illinois? What’s it like to try and work through the system to get a loved one into care? What are the barriers disallowing services to be expanded?
We’re interested in hearing your experiences with these issues, and we also want to know what your questions are. So, we’ll be hosting the first of what we hope are lots of Twitterchats with you, the folks who learn from our reporting and make that reporting possible. Won’t you join us?
What is a Twitterchat?
A Twitterchat is a live conversation that happens on Twitter. When you’re composing your tweets, if you include the hashtag #WILLchat, your tweet will be collected with all the other comments from people who want to contribute to that conversation.
What will you be talking about?
If you or someone you know is living with mental illness, we want to know your experience. Many people we’ve spoken with so far for our series “Unmet Needs” have had a hard time getting an appointment with a doctor or have been stigmatized. Has this been the case for you too?
If you don’t live with mental illness or know someone who does, is there something you would like to understand better?
How do I participate?
If you have a Twitter account, find us by tweeting with the hashtag #WILLchat at 11:00 a.m. on Friday. If you don’t have a twitter account currently, but would like to participate, sign up for one! You can do that by going to this link.