Record number of finalists announced for 2025 Mindset and En-Tête Awards

LONDON, ON, March 25, 2026 /CNW/ - Twenty-two finalists have been chosen in six competitions comprising the Mindset and En-Tête awards for excellence in mental health reporting in 2025. Finalists were selected from a record number of applicants, working in both English and French, boosted by the establishment of a third awards category - Reporting on Addictions - added to two well-established ones in each language. 

Mindset Award for Reporting on Addictions

Karen Pauls, CBC News: Ibogaine: The Last Trip?  This psychedelic could change the opioid crisis. But its health risks hinder testing. (March 27, 2025)

Lucas-Matthew Marsh, The Toronto Star: I used to self-medicate with alcohol.    (July 11, 2025)

Steven D'Souza with Eva Uguen-Csenge, Shelley Ayres, Emmanuel Marchand & Allya Davidson, CBC the fifth estate The Political War on Safe Drugs. Canada's opioid crisis has led to the deaths of tens of thousands of people, costing the health and justice systems billions. (November 13, 2025)  

Dr. Brian Goldman with Jennifer Warren &  Colleen Ross CBC Radio - White Coat, Black Art, The Treatment Centre that Grief Built: Part 1 and Part 2
(November 28, 2025)

Mindset Award for Reporting on Mental Health in the Workplace

Jana G. Pruden
The Globe and Mail:  The Matriarchy with Muscles. Profiling Cree wrestler Sage Morin, looking at how her work as a professional wrestler has changed her life, helping her move past tragedy to help and inspire others.  (February 1,2025)

Zosia Bielski
The Globe and Mail:  Despite a burnout crisis, Canadians are reluctant to rest. A new movement wants us to hit pause.
Feature examining the deep cultural aversion toward rest in Canada, and how inability to take rest seriously corrodes our mental health and our work, intensifying burnout in employees. (February 14, 2025)

Wendy-Ann Clarke and Robert Cribb
Investigative Journalism Bureau / National Post:  'They make you doubt your sanity.' Staff describe toxic workplace at top mental health hospital.  (July 29, 2025)

Dr. Brian Goldman with Stephanie Dubois &  Colleen Ross
CBC Radio - White Coat, Black Art:  'The air rescue team reinventing first responder support.'  Miles Randell, an advanced care paramedic, is trying to do something different for frontline health-care workers who need a supportive work environment. (November 28, 2025)

Mindset Award for Reporting on the Mental Health of Young People

Jadine Ngan and Tahmeed Shafiq, illustration by Justin Poulsen, The Walrus:
What Happens after a Death on Campus. "Following a string of suicides, U of T abandoned its students. It should have protected them." (March 4, 2025)

Ann Dempsey Raven and Megan Ogilvie
The Toronto Star: Failing Jade An anonymous tipster sent a note to the Star, saying a 15-year-old girl in the care of a children's aid society had languished in a budget hotel and died waiting for mental health and addiction treatment. (June 1,2025)

Samuel Watt CBC North: After again declaring suicide a crisis in Nunavut, officials and advocates look for new solutions.  "Victoria Madsen, Nunavut's assistant deputy minister of health, admits she was initially sceptical when she found out a few years ago about all the territorial funding allocated for some community initiatives. She questioned what music classes, sports or fishing derbies had to do with suicide prevention. However, she soon realized what those events can mean to people."  (August 7, 2025)

Erin Anderson Happiness reporter, The Globe & Mail: Doom-polling. Canada has fallen far in the global rankings of happy nations. Young people, suspecting our vision of the good life is unattainable, are exploring other options. (October 5, 2025)

Le prix En-Tête pour le reportage aux dépendances

Myriam Fimbry, SRC:  Dans l'enfer de la drogue sur la Côte-Nord. La drogue ne fait pas que des ravages en ville; c'est le cas en région aussi. Sur la Côte-Nord, au Québec, des trafiquants se livrent une guerre des territoires, semant la peur dans des quartiers paisibles de Sept-Îles. Rencontre avec un travailleur cocaïnomane en compagnie de l'acteur Mario Saint-Amand. (28 août 2025)

Caroline Touzin, La Presse: Morts de sans-abri: record tragique au Québec. Ils sont morts dans l'espace public. Devant le porte d'un commerce. Dans le métro. Sans qu'aucun de ces drames ne fasse les manchettes. (6 septembre 2025)

Florence Morin-Martel, Le Devoir: Sortir des sentiers battus pour contrer la dépendance à la méthamphétamine. Une étude teste deux ajouts à la thérapie standard : un incitatif financier et une médication, seuls ou combinés. (4 octobre 2025)

Amélie Mouton, SRC: Quitter le Nord, se perdre au Sud.  En novembre 2021, une femme originaire de Salluit, au Nunavik, décède sur le terrain d'un chantier de construction, au pied d'un des immeubles luxueux qui ont poussé non loin du square Cabot, à Montréal. (13 novembre, 2025)

Le prix En-Tête pour le reportage en santé mentale chez les jeunes

Denis Wong, SRC: « Je n'étais plus un humain » : ces hommes brisés par la violence sexuelle. Un homme sur dix au Canada aurait été victime d'une agression sexuelle durant son enfance ou son adolescence. (27 janvier, 2025)

Philippe-Antoine Saulnier, SRC: Retrouver le goût de vivre… en pédiatrie psychiatrique
Le reporter a visité l'unité de psychiatrie pédiatrique de l'hôpital Rivière-des-Prairies et rencontré trois adolescents qui y ont séjourné.
(2 avril 2025)

Marine Corniou, Québec Science
Mon PSY est une IA  De plus en plus de gens se tournent vers des robots conversationnels ou des applications mobiles pour trouver du réconfort ou obtenir de l'aide en santé mentale. Ces outils, bien qu'attrayants, ne sont pas sans risque.  (Septembre 2025)

Florence Morin-Martel, Le Devoir
«Avoir une belle vie» après la psychose

Une étude teste deux ajouts à la thérapie standard : un indicatif financier et une médication, seuls ou combinés. (6 septembre 2025)

Le prix En-Tête pour le reportage en santé mentale au travail

Alexis Gacon, SRC  
La Biolarité au travail Le monde du travail apprend petit à petit à faire de la place aux personnes qui vivent avec ce trouble et à mieux les comprendre. (8 juin 2025)

Danny Lemieux, SRC
Survivre à un attentat terroriste La résilience est un mécanisme complexe. Une étude menée auprès de survivants des attentats de Paris met en lumière ce processus, qui va bien au-delà de la simple volonté. Rencontre avec des survivants de l'attentat du Bataclan. (9 novembre 2025)  

"It's encouraging to see the awards continuing to expand in both official languages," said Jane Hawkes, a co-founder and executive producer of the Canadian Journalism Forum on Violence and Trauma, which publishes the journalist-to-journalist mental health reporting guides after which the awards are named.

She added: "We also work to increase the safety and mental wellbeing of Canada's  journalists, by helping those who can least afford it get free hostile environment safety training, and by providing psychiatric counselling for freelancers who are affected by the work they do but aren't covered by staff benefits. Reporting mental health stories at large and dealing with similar issues within our industry go hand-in-hand. It's good to see that symbiosis continuing."

Discussion of the winning entries along with presentation of certificates will take place in June in Montreal (En-Tête) and Ottawa (Mindset). 

The Mindset and En-Tête Awards are sponsored by the Canadian Mental Health Association, B.C. division.  

Three editions of the printed guides were supported financially by the Mental Health Commission of Canada, on terms which keep editorial control in the Forum's hands.  

Some activities of the Forum are also supported by CBC News, Societé Radio-Canada, The Globe and Mail, and Myriad Canada, as well as individual donors. We thank CNW for distributing this press release.

SOURCE Canadian Journalism Forum on Violence and Trauma

For more information in English, please visit www.mindset-mediaguide.ca or contact Jane Hawkes, Executive Producer, Canadian Journalism Forum on Violence and Trauma, at [phone], [email protected]; En français, veuillez visiter www.en-tete.ca ou contacter Lise Villeneuve au [phone], [email protected]