The Echo shortlisted for two articles in Headline Mental Health Awards

TWO reporters from The Echo have been nominated for the 2023 Headline Mental Health Awards.

Established more than a decade ago, the Awards aim to recognise excellence in media coverage of mental health issues, celebrating those whose work brings to light challenging mental health stories.

With nine categories, the awards highlight work from all platforms across local, national, and online media.

Headline Programme Leader Áine O’Meara said that previous winners are among the best storytellers, investigators and advocates in the country "who champion under-reported issues and amplify the voice of lived experience."

The reporters from The Echo received nominations in the Mental Health Journalism local print and online category. 

Donal O’Keeffe received a nomination for his piece ‘Simon reaching out to Cork’s homeless’ while Chris Dunne was nominated for her piece ‘Reaching out to other bereaved dads in Cork’.

Congratulating Donal O'Keeffe and Chris Dunne on being shortlisted for the awards, Eoghan Dinan, Deputy Editor of The Echo said the recognition of their work and their nominations were "thoroughly deserved".

"We try all the time to encourage responsible coverage of mental health issues, and the team at The Echo is encouraged by having this recognised."

Chris, who lives in Garryvoe east Cork and a mother of four grown-up children, is a journalist for 25 years, having studied journalism as a mature student She joined the Evening Echo as a feature writer back in 2000. She has been contributing regularly, as a freelancer, to The Echo for more than two decades, her speciality being in human interest stories.

She has been shortlisted in the category; Mental Health Journalism Local Print and Online, for a feature in The Echo headline, 'Reaching out to other bereaved dads in Cork'.

The feature was about a new soccer team for bereaved dads, set up by Feileacain volunteer Mark Millard, following the loss of his son, Isaac. Mark spoke about how his mental health suffered and how he wants to support other fathers.

Chris was shortlisted as Regional Journalist of the Year in 2013 and also nominated last year, 2022, in the Mental Health Media Awards.

She said: "As a young girl I always harboured an ambition to see my name in print rather than in lights. I had good training for my future career in school when I would write essays for other pupils, and they would do my maths! They only had to come up with one right answer, I had to create a couple of different stories with different angles-hence good practice!

"Also I think growing up in a pub listening to many conversations from many people helped my natural curiosity about people develop.

Writing for The Echo gives me great job satisfaction and I am proud of my long association with the paper."

Meanwhile, Noel Baker of the Irish Examiner was shortlisted in the national print/online category for his piece ‘It’s very hard to see a loved one, with cuffs on, in prison because there is nowhere else for him to go’.

Last year, Ann Murphy received the Headline Mental Health Journalism award in the Local Print/Online category for her story ‘My only chance to survive’ which was published in The Echo. 

The winners of the 2023 Headline Mental Health Awards will be announced on December 6.