The Mental Health Project is an initiative of The Seattle Times focused on covering mental and behavioral health issues. It is funded by the Ballmer Group, a national organization focused on the economic mobility of children and families. Additional support is provided by City University of Seattle. The Seattle Times maintains editorial control over the work produced by this team.
The Seattle Times won the Carolyn C. Mattingly Award for Mental Health Reporting for a story about insurance barriers to mental health care, the National Press Foundation announced Monday.
The award is a national honor that recognizes “exemplary journalism that promotes understanding of mental health issues and treatment,” and was established in 2014 by the Press Foundation and the Luv U Project. His nonprofit Luv U Project focuses on mental health and was founded in memory of Mattingly, a Maryland philanthropist and activist.
Reporters Michelle Baruchman and Hannah Furfallo, artist and animator Jennifer Ruxton, and video journalist Lauren Frone received the award.
The winning articles covered topics related to insurance and mental health, including how low reimbursement rates discourage therapists from taking out insurance, and how insurance companies’ online directories are outdated and ineffective. These include how accurate they are often, and how insurance companies create certain barriers to care for young people seeking medical care. Helps with deadly eating disorders.
The eating disorder project “Not Sick Enough” featured an animated video by Ruxton and Frone that told the story of a teenager’s fight for covered care.
“Insurance often feels like an impossible topic to write about,” the National Press Foundation said in a news release, citing contest judges as saying, “Insurance often feels like an impossible topic to write about, but reporters write about it in an engaging and clear way.” I wrote an article.” “This series shows that even though federal law requires mental health to be covered at the same level as physical health, insurance companies often fail to meet that standard with little oversight. Understood.”
The Seattle Times’ Mental Health Project is a four-person team that has been covering mental and behavioral health in Washington state since 2021. Furfallo is still with the team, and Baruchman is currently a reporter in Atlanta.
With funding from the Ballmer Group, the Mental Health Project explores everything from Washington state’s struggles in caring for people with serious mental illnesses such as schizophrenia to why Washingtonians have so much difficulty finding therapists. We have investigated a wide range of topics.
The team has previously won “Best of the West,” which earned the team two awards for explanatory reporting, and the No. 1 award in the nation for health care beat reporting to Farfallo in 2022. He has been recognized in contests such as the Healthcare Journalists Association. Learn more about the team’s efforts at seattletimes.com/mental-health.
