Finalists for 2024 Mindset Awards announced

Eight finalists have been announced by the Canadian Journalism Forum on Violence and Trauma for the 2024 Mindset Awards for Mental Health Reporting.

For the Mindset Award for Reporting on the Mental Health of Young People the finalists - in order of publication or broadcast date - are:

Ioanna Roumeliotis, with Laurence Mathieu-Léger and Andrew Culbert, for When the Dark Web Crosses Over, on CBC Television's The Fifth Estate, on February 9, 2024. Hate groups are targeting kids on social media platforms with privacy features. They are groomed to self-harm, plan violent attacks and even end their lives. Police are limited in their ability to act until the crimes cross over to the real world.

Dr. Brian Goldman, with Jennifer Warren, Jonathan Ore, and Colleen Ross, for The toll of cannabis-induced psychosis, broadcast by CBC Radio on February 10, 2024. Around one in five young people in Canada (some as young as 16) use cannabis every day. THC is the key psychoactive ingredient in cannabis – and today’s high-THC marijuana, available legally in Canada, brings with it very serious mental health risks, especially for young men.

Rachel Browne, for A Military-Style School for Troubled Teens Became a “Living Nightmare” in The Walrus on August 20, 2024. An exclusive and comprehensive account of physical, sexual, emotional, and psychological abuse allegations by former students who attended Robert Land Academy, a military-style boarding school for boys in Ontario.

Luke Galati, with Ashishvangh Contractor, for Dreaming of Better, broadcast by CBC Radio on December 27, 2024. Host Luke Galati shares his deeply personal story of spending three months in a psychiatric hospital following a bipolar episode. This one-hour special takes listeners on an intimate journey into the realities of living with bipolar disorder. They hear how it's diagnosed, find out what it's like to live with, and learn how people cope through the complexities of regaining stability and finding a path to wellness.

 For the Mindset Award for Reporting on Workplace Mental Health, the finalists - also in date order - are:

 Robert Cribb, with Emma Jarratt, for Privileged and Confidential, published by Investigative Journalism Bureau and The Toronto Star on February 18, 2024. Women outnumber men in Canadian law schools. But several years into their careers, women are leaving their positions in law firms in disproportionate numbers.  An analysis of complaints before criminal and civil courts, law societies and human rights tribunals shows hundreds of cases of alleged sexual misconduct against lawyers from the public and those within the profession.

Pippa Norman, with photos by Kari Medig, for Thousands of kilometres from the battlefield, these Ukrainian veterans are finding solace in the Canadian woods, published by The Globe and Mail on July 12, 2024. While war continues to cast a shadow over the lives of Ukrainians, this is the story of one Canadian doing what he can to help from afar.

Mariom Ferrer for I work in mental health and even I didn't recognize my compulsive thoughts, published by CBC Ottawa's series First Person on October 2, 2024. Many people think of OCD as an illness that involves compulsive hand-washing. The author admits that, despite working in the mental health sphere, they too had misconceptions about what OCD was, creating a non-judgemental entry point for the reader to learn more about the reality of life with OCD.

Robert Cribb, with Wendy-Ann Clarke, Declan Keogh and Owen Thompson, for Mind Games – Healing or Harming Generational Wounds, published co-operatively by Investigative Journalism Bureau, TVO, and The Toronto Star on November 1, 2024. The work revealed a discriminatory federal program that has subjected some of Canada's most vulnerable Indigenous people to harm and exploitation in the field of mental health.

 The juries' choices of winners in both categories will be announced in April and celebrated at a lunch on May 30 at the Canadian Association of Journalists national conference in Calgary. Winners will receive their prizes from - and discuss their work with - Christina Frangou, a distinguished freelance journalist and past Mindset Award winner.

Both current categories of The Mindset Awards, and their French counterparts, are sponsored exclusively by the Canadian Mental Health Association, B.C. Division.