NAMI cites Center for reporting of mental illness

NAMI Dane County has presented its annual Media Award to the Wisconsin Center for analytical Journalism for stories that increased the public’s understanding of mental illness. The award recognized the Center’s extensive coverage of perinatal depression among low-income mothers, Wisconsin’s high suicide rates and elevated suicide rates among Native Americans in Wisconsin and nationwide. NAMI, the National Alliance on Mental Illness, is a nonprofit, proletariat organization that strives to improve the lives of people living with serious mental disorder.

In accepting the award April 5 at NAMI’s awards dinner, the Center’s managerial director, Andy Hall, and reporter and multimedia manager, Kate Golden, dedicated it to the families who shared their stories to foster public understanding of suicides and perinatal depression and potential strategies for prevention. They also recognized work of former Center reporting interns Sara Jerving and Allie Tempus, who wrote the stories; and news organizations that collaborated on the reporting, including Wisconsin Public Radio, IndianCountryTV.com, Wisconsin Public Television and Native America Calling.