Rosalynn Carter Mental Health Journalism Fellowship: school-based mental health

I was selected in 2021-22 to report on how schools are coping with students returning to in-person learning among an ongoing pandemic and rising reports of mental illness.

The pandemic left many of us isolated and literally alone. Social distancing kept us communicating over social media and many of us suffer(ed) Zoom fatigue.

I first looked at the existing system of identifying students who are at risk of mental illness and substance use disorder.

Schools often ID kids’ mental health concerns. That’s where Georgia’s Apex program comes in

The second feature tackled what some students are doing to help each other connect and talk about the effects of suicide in the community.

She lost her brother and a classmate. So this high school senior says we need to talk about suicide

My third feature for this fellowship examined the efforts to encourage people to work in the field of mental health care.

Encouraging the next generation of clinical and, potentially, school-based psychologists

About the Fellowships

The Carter Center’s Rosalynn Carter Fellowships for Mental Health Journalism support a diverse cohort of journalists from Latin America, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, and the United States. Fellows are deeply committed to exploring some of society’s biggest mental health challenges.

The mental health journalism fellowships program was founded in 1996 by former First Lady Rosalynn Carter based on an essential premise: give journalists the resources they need to report on mental health — one of the world’s most under reported health issues — to help dismantle through storytelling the stigma that millions of people face every day. Find out more and apply.