Finalists announced for the Mindset Award for Workplace Mental Health Reporting in 2019
LONDON, ON, March 6, 2020 /CNW/ - Four finalists have been chosen from a field of 11 candidates for the 2019 Mindset Award for Workplace Mental Health Reporting. The winner will now be chosen by an independent jury and will be revealed at a national awards gala in Montreal at the end of May.
The finalists, selected by the Canadian Journalism Forum on Violence and Trauma which created and administers the award, are presented here in date order:
CBC News: The Fifth Estate – Officer Down reported by Mark Kelly with Timothy Sawa (producer) and Kimberly Ivany (associate producer), broadcast on March 10, 2019. Building on inside information from an Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) member, the team conducted a 6-month investigation into the workplace culture of the force, revealing that 12 OPP officers had killed themselves since Ontario's ombudsman first raised the alarm about OPP officers' mental health in 2012. After the broadcast, the Ontario government established an Independent Review Panel to look into the issues.
CBC Radio: The Hole Inside reported by Florence K, with Kent Hoffman (producer) broadcast on April 19, 2019. Florence K is a musician, singer-songwriter and host of the CBC radio program C'est Formidable. This stand-alone documentary tells the story of her personal struggles with mental illness in a very public workplace, and her continuing recovery.
HuffPost Canada: Ex-juror with PTSD lauds MPs for Uniting on Bill to Ease Secrecy Rule by staff writer Ryan Maloney, published on April 21, 2019. The piece profiles Mark Farrant, who struggled with severe PTSD after serving as a juror in a graphic murder trial. He mounted a campaign for federal legislation to make it easier for people in his situation to get mental health treatment and support. The first legislation to amend the Criminal Code passed the House of Commons unanimously, but died in the Senate. Replacement legislation initiated in the Senate is now going through the parliamentary process.
CBC News: The National – Breaking the Silence of Subway Suicide reported by Ioanna Roumeliotis, with Melissa Mancini (producer), broadcast on September 10, 2019. The team spent months negotiating extraordinary behind-the-scenes access to Toronto's subway as the TTC moved away from a policy of not talking about suicides and suicide attempts there, devastating events for TTC workers, passengers, victims and loved ones. Suicides were increasing. Silence, the TTC's chief safety officer said bluntly, wasn't helping. But contagion – fear that being more open could lead to more deaths - was still a concern. The team had to work out how best to cover the story responsibly. After the broadcast, the number of suicide attempts in Toronto's subway fell for the first time in two years.
Finalists for the parallel French-language award, le prix En-Tête pour le reportage en santé mentale au travail, are also announced today. Both awards are sponsored by Workplace Strategies for Mental Health, compliments of Canada Life (formerly known as the Great-West Life Centre for Workplace Mental Health) which serves as a source for journalists working on stories on the topic.
Forum president Cliff Lonsdale said: "Each of these Mindset Award finalists deserves high praise. They all address important issues in workplace mental health, and it is encouraging to see how responsibly and effectively those issues are handled. Now, it's up to this year's independent jury of distinguished journalists to decide a winner."
The award carries a prize of $1,000. The winner will be revealed and the award presented at the Canadian Association of Journalists annual awards gala in Montreal on May 30.
Development and production of the Mindset and En-Tête guides to mental health reporting were supported by the Mental Health Commission of Canada, with funding provided by Health Canada, and by CBC News. The Forum has sole responsibility for administration and content.
The Forum is an educational charity concerned with the physical and emotional wellbeing of journalists, their audiences and those on whom they report. Its work is supported by The Globe and Mail, CBC News, Radio-Canada and Cision.
Our thanks to Cision for supporting this announcement.
SOURCE Canadian Journalism Forum on Violence and Trauma
For further information: Please see the Mindset website www.mindset-mediaguide or contact Jane Hawkes, Executive Producer, Canadian Journalism Forum on Violence and Trauma, 1-519 852-4946, [email protected]
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