REPORTERS FROM ACROSS The Journal, Noteworthy and The42.ie have been nominated for this year’s Headline Mental Health Media Awards.

The awards help “to recognise and support Irish media professionals as they do the important and challenging work involved in creating awareness and reducing stigma in mental health reporting”, said Headline.

Encouraging excellence in reporting standards and reducing stigma around the representation of mental ill health in the media is key to improving mental health literacy.

Competition was tough this year, with the diverse panel of judges having “lively debates” over who to choose as nominees. 

Headline also said that its 2019 analysis showed the vast majority of stories related to severe mental health conditions like bipolar disorder and schizophrenia were in relation to court cases or violent crime.

Its 2020 research highlighted that just 2% of stories about severe mental health conditions included the perspective of people living with these experiences, and that “this has to change”.

Nominees

In the Mental Health Journalism, national category, which is for a print or online news report or feature, published in a national news outlet, about or related to mental health, Maria Delaney received a nomination for her Noteworthy and The Journal story: Delays, distress, deterioration: Health system failing people with eating disorders.

In the Mental Health Content – Digital category, The Explainer x Noteworthy: How is inadequate care impacting people with eating disorders?, podcast from Maria Delaney, Laura Byrne and Susan Daly was nominated. 

In the Special Recognition category – for an individual with lived experience of mental ill health who, in their own words, shares their story to help and educate a wider audience – The42.ie received a nomination for Clare Shine for ‘I’m no monster. I just live with something so powerful’.

Silent Treatment by Noteworthy/The Journal is nominated for the Shine Audience Choice Award. This is award is for a piece of Irish media that has impacted the Irish public and/or shaped the public conversation on mental ill health in Ireland. This is the only award chosen entirely by the public. 

And in the Mental Health Content – Special Interest category, there were the following nominations across Journal Media:

• Traveller health ‘not being prioritised’ despite ‘shocking’ outcomes for children, Maria Delaney and Michelle Hennessy for Noteworthy and The Journal
• ‘I’m no monster. I just live with something so powerful’, Emma Duffy for The42.ie
• Delays, distress, deterioration: Health system failing people with eating disorders, Maria Delaney for Noteworthy and The Journal.

All of the nominees for this year’s awards can be found here.