Seven finalists chosen for the Mindset Award for Workplace Mental Health Reporting

LONDON, ON, March 15, 2018 /CNW/ - Seven journalists have been named as finalists for the Mindset Award for Workplace Mental Health Reporting, recognizing outstanding reporting during 2017 on mental health issues in the workplace. 

The $1,000 prize is offered by the Canadian Journalism Forum on Violence and Trauma, in connection with its widely-used journalist-to-journalist guides Mindset: Reporting on Mental Health and its French counterpart En-Tête : reportage et santé mentale.

The award is open to Canadian journalists or media organizations working in any medium, in English or French. In French, it is styled le prix En-Tête pour le reportage sur la santé mentale en milieu de travail.

The seven finalists were chosen from a total of 24 applications received from all parts of the country.  "The field this year is quite outstanding," said Cliff Lonsdale, the Forum's president. "Our triage group had some very difficult decisions to make in choosing the finalists. It speaks to the growing attention these issues are receiving in the media, and the high quality of the work."

An independent jury is now considering the finalists, presented in order of publication:

The Hidden Toll of Duty ? reported by Ioanna Roumeliotis, with Corinne Seminoff, Brenda Witmer and Jean-François Bisson, for CBC's The National. The feature story, broadcast in January 2017, examined the emotional impact on jurors assigned to gruelling and disturbing trials.

L'envers de la scène (Backstage) ? reported for La Presse by Charles-Éric Blais-Poulin in April 2017.  It revealed that a high proportion of musicians in Quebec are struggling with mental health problems.

The Emotional Aftermath of Subway Suicide ? reported by Lisa Bryn Rundle for Out in the Open with Piya Chattopadhyay on CBC Radio, in June 2017. The story explored the mental impact on probationary transit operator David Williamson when his subway train struck and killed a man who jumped in front of it.

Pushed to the Brink ? reported by Mike McIntyre for The Winnipeg Free Press in July 2017, cast light on the mental health problems of Crown Attorneys. It featured Nicole Roch, once in charge of many of Manitoba's most important criminal files, now on long-term disability as a result of work-related PTSD.

Oil, Heartbreak, and Manhood: Behind the Mental Health Crisis of Alberta's Oil Workers ? reported by Omar Mouallem for BuzzFeed News in August 2017. It details how gruelling hours, shift-work, substance abuse, isolation, and a 'boys don't cry' attitude that censors emotion is taking a toll on Alberta's migrant oil workers.

A Mental Health Crisis in Little Bangladesh ? reported by Simon Lewsen for the online publication The Local in September 2017. It revealed that lack of meaningful employment is probably the biggest driver of mental illness in East Toronto's Bangladeshi population, which has one of the highest rates of mental-health-related ER visits in the city.

Et si on s'occupait du stess des gestionnaires? (What if we paid attention to managers' stress?) ? reported by Frédérique David in the business magazine Avantages.  The story, published in December 2017, highlights the mental health problems of managers and looks at ways to alleviate them.

Last year the main prize was awarded to the team that wrote The Globe & Mail's Unremembered series exposing the extent of suicide among Afghanistan war veterans.  Subsidiary prizes of $250 each were awarded to work published in The Ottawa Citizen and The Tyee.

The award is sponsored by the Great-West Life Centre for Mental Health in the Workplace. The Centre is a leading source of free, practical tools and resources designed to help all Canadian employers with the prevention, intervention and management of workplace mental health issues.

The award or awards for 2017 will be presented in May 2018 at the national conference of the Canadian Association of Journalists in Toronto.

Mindset and En-Tête were published in 2014 to help general assignment reporters deal with breaking stories that involve mental illness. About 7,000 copies are in use in newsrooms and journalism schools across the country.  The guides are supported by the Mental Health Commission of Canada, using a grant from Health Canada, and by CBC News. The Forum is solely responsible for their content.

The Forum is an educational charity concerned with the physical and emotional wellbeing of journalists, their audiences and those on whom they report.

Our thanks to Cision and CNW for supporting this announcement.

SOURCE Canadian Journalism Forum on Violence and Trauma