‘Hope givers’? A scoping review of new media and mental health in 27 Australian Christian organisations

ABSTRACT

This article explains a range of conceptual and methodological innovations in the use of new media for the clinical practice and public communication of mental health. Building on two current contexts – the emerging research area of new media and mental health, and major reform of the mental health system in Australia – this article presents a scoping review of the online communication of Christian organisations that offer mental health care in Australia. This article compares the websites of 27 Australian Christian mental health organisations, analysing these organisations’ configurations of mainstream and religious modalities of mental health care, their discursive and visual communication strategies, as well as their use of social media platforms.

KEYWORDS:

• Mental health
• online communication
• websites
• social media
• culture
• religion
• Australia

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

ORCID

Esther Chin http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1666-324X