January 10, 2022 – Entries are now open for two Mindset and two En-Tête awards for excellence in mental health reporting in Canada during 2021. Four main prizes of $1,000 are available across the parallel English and French competitions, with juries empowered to add subsidiary ones.
The categories in both languages are workplace mental health and the mental health of young people, the latter being offered for the first time as the awards family expands. There are no entry fees and applications can be made by media organizations or by individual journalists responsible for the work.
Mindset awards are given for work in any medium published or broadcast in English, while En-Tête awards are for such work in French. The awards are linked to the leading pair of mental health reporting guides in Canada, written for journalists by journalists – Mindset: Reporting on Mental Health; and En-Tête : reportage et santé mentale. The guides are in their third editions, with more than 13,000 copies in circulation.
All awards are offered by the Canadian Journalism Forum on Violence and Trauma, the charity responsible for the content of the guides, which are supported by the Mental Health Commission of Canada. They will be determined by four independent juries.
The workplace awards are sponsored by Workplace Strategies for Mental Health, compliments of Canada Life, while the new awards for reporting about young people’s mental health are sponsored by the Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA).
“Never have mental health challenges been so under the spotlight as in this ongoing pandemic,” said Forum president Cliff Lonsdale. “It’s no longer possible to go on thinking they affect only an unfortunate few. Mental illness has always been more democratic than we cared to admit. The pandemic has made that more abundantly clear and – for all the suffering revealed – I hope we will emerge with greater willingness to deal openly with these issues, treating immediate and systemic causes as fitting and urgent subjects for journalism that treats people with respect and makes a difference.”
Mary Ann Baynton, Director of Collaboration and Strategy at Workplace Strategies for Mental Health, says she strives to help people get unstuck, move beyond problems, restore their productivity and improve their working lives. She added: “Well-informed journalism about mental health can also help achieve those goals. I’m very pleased with the quality of the work the awards celebrate.”
Announcing CMHA’s sponsorship of the new awards for reporting on young people’s mental health earlier, Margaret Eaton, the Association’s National CEO, said: “We know that language matters when it comes to mental health. We rely on good journalism to help us advance society’s acceptance and understanding of mental health-related issues and we are proud to laud those who do it so responsibly and so well.”
Full details of the competition rules and online application process are on the Forum’s website in English and French. Entries close on February 11. Finalists in all four competitions will be announced by the end of March and prize presentation events in May will once again be determined according to public health conditions.
The Canadian Journalism Forum on Violence and Trauma is a charity dedicated to the physical safety and mental well-being of journalists, their audiences and the people on whom they report. We acknowledge the support of the Globe and Mail, CBC News and Radio-Canada. We thank Cision for the publication of this news release.
For more information about the Forum or the awards, please see the Mindset website www.mindset-mediaguide.ca
SOURCE Canadian Journalism Forum on Violence and Trauma
For further information: Jane Hawkes, Executive Producer, Canadian Journalism Forum on Violence and Trauma, 519 852-4946, jane.hawkes@journalismforum.ca
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