2006 Mental Health Media Awards

The media play a vital role in educating Americans about the reality of mental health and mental illnesses. Through accurate, hard-hitting and responsible coverage, media professionals can help reduce the stigma associated with mental health disorders and inform readers that mental illnesses are real, common and treatable.

Each year, the National Mental Health Association honors media professionals who excel in their reporting and portrayal of mental health issues. A volunteer judging panel, hailing from such reputable media outlets as Nation’s Health, Congressional Quarterly, Voice of America and United Press International, selected this year’s 12 winning entries for their outstanding quality, educational value and creativity in addressing timely topics in mental health.

Awards were presented June 9th, at NMHA’s 2006 Annual Meeting, Building the Movement, in Washington, D.C. Winners and links to the award-winning stories, where available online, are below.

The 2007 Mental Health Media Awards program will honor reporting and portrayal of mental health issues in news and feature stories, on national, state and local levels and in print and broadcast media. NMHA will distribute nomination brochures in early 2007. To sign up for our awards mailing list, please contact Jason Halal at 703-797-1943 or jhalal@nmha.org.

Local Television

Kim Holt
WSOC-TV (Charlotte, NC)
"Charlotte’s Hidden Crisis"

Local/Regional Magazines

Joanne Kenen
Washingtonian
"To Save Someone Else’s Son"
http://www.washingtonian.com/people/05/suicide.html

Trade Publications

Joanne M. Doan, Nancy Tobin and Stacie Zoe Berg
bp Magazine
"The color of bp"
http://www.bphope.com/articles/2006/ColorOfBPFall05.pdf

National Radio for News, Educational or Public Service Programming

Alix Spiegel, Anne Gudenkauf and Allison Richards
National Public Radio
"Mental Health in the Wake of Hurricane Katrina" Series
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5013096
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5014682
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5016443
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5018274

Best Column

Steve Lopez
Los Angeles Times
"Points West," 11-Part Series
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-lopez-skidrow-nathaniel-series,0,1456093.special

Best Research Article

Katy Butler
Psychotherapy Networker
"Alice in Neuroland"
http://psychotherapynetworker.org/so05_butler.html

Best Coverage of a Mental Health Issue

Philip Dawdy
Seattle Weekly
"Good Cop, Sad Cop"
http://www.seattleweekly.com/news/0513/050330_news_bipolar.php

Best Coverage of a Mental Illness

Gary Remal
Kennebec Journal (Augusta, ME)
"A Mother’s Story of Death, Grief and Guilt"
http://kennebecjournal.mainetoday.com/news/local/1531747.shtml

Best First Person Account of a Mental Health Issue

Kera Bolonik
Glamour
"Two Friends, One Suicide"

Join us for the 2006 NMHA Annual Meeting