Carter Center Awards 2007-2008 Fellowships for Mental Health Journalism

Contact: 
Meryl Bailey 
Telephone: 404-420-5129
E-mail: [email protected]

ATLANTA...The Carter Center Mental Health Program has named eight recipients of its eleventh annual Rosalynn Carter Fellowships for Mental Health Journalism, including six from the United States and two from southern Africa. Two Romanian journalists will be named at a later date. Each domestic fellow will receive a $10,000 stipend to study and report on a particular issue within the mental health field for one year. International fellows will receive a comparable stipend.

The fellows will convene in Atlanta at The Carter Center on Sept. 17-19, 2007, to meet with former U.S. First Lady Rosalynn Carter, the Center's Mental Health Task Force, and the Journalism Fellowship Advisory Board to discuss planned topics of study. The fellowships are part of an international effort by the Carter Center Mental Health Program to reduce stigma and discrimination against people with mental illnesses and decrease incorrect and stereotypical information.

"Informed journalists can have a significant impact on public understanding of mental health issues, as they shape debate and trends with the words and pictures they convey," Mrs. Carter said. "They influence their peers and stimulate discussion among the general public, and an informed public can reduce stigma and discrimination."

Since the beginning of the Center's journalism fellowship program, more than 100 newspaper and magazine articles have been written, five books published, four television documentaries produced, and hundreds of minutes of radio time aired. Fellows' projects have garnered awards from Mental Health America (formerly the National Mental Health Association), the American Psychological Association, Amnesty International, and the Association of Healthcare Journalists, as well as Emmy Award nominations and two nominations for the Pulitzer Prize in Journalism.

The 2007-2008 Rosalynn Carter Fellowships for Mental Health Journalism recipients are:

Ilse Pauw
Senior Writer/Editor
Health24.com
Cape Town, South Africa

Topic: Write a series of seven feature articles highlighting individuals living with a mental illness.

Andrea Petersen
News Editor
The Wall Street Journal
Brooklyn, NY, USA

Topic: Write a series of articles and a book on the diagnoses, causes, and treatment of anxiety disorders.

Molly Knight Raskin
Freelance Journalist
Washington, DC, USA

Topic: Write a series of feature-length articles on Borderline Personality Disorder to give a general understanding of the illness as well as highlight recent, promising breakthroughs in treatment, with the overall goal to reduce the stigma surrounding it.

Kevin Roy
News Anchor/Reporter
WLS-TV, ABC7 Chicago
Chicago, IL, USA

Topic: Produce a series of stories about suicide prevention, including what is being done to bring down suicide rates in the State of Illinois.

Marc Shaffer
Documentary Filmmaker
Oakland, CA, USA

Topic: Produce a 60-90 minute television documentary on the criminalization of people with mental illnesses to explore the reasons those with severe mental illnesses are incarcerated and solutions to reverse this destructive trend.

Chandra Thomas
Staff Writer
Atlanta Magazine
Atlanta, GA, USA

Topic: Explore the stigma surrounding mental illnesses in the African-American community.

Gregory Warner
Freelance Journalist
New York, NY, USA

Topic: Produce an hour-long radio episode about trauma treatment in the United States and abroad.

Pieter van Zyl
Senior Writer
Media 24
Cape Town, South Africa Topic: Explore and portray the influence of crime on South Africa's children, therapists, single parents, and others, as well as provide journalists with guidelines on how to interview victims of crime.

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"Waging Peace. Fighting Disease. Building Hope."

The Carter Center celebrates its 25th anniversary in 2007. A not-for-profit, nongovernmental organization, The Carter Center has helped to improve life for people in more than 65 countries by resolving conflicts; advancing democracy, human rights, and economic opportunity; preventing diseases; improving mental health care; and teaching farmers in developing nations to increase crop production. The Carter Center was founded in 1982 by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and his wife, Rosalynn, in partnership with Emory University, to advance peace and health worldwide. Please visit www.cartercenter.org to learn more about The Carter Center.