Rosalynn Carter Fellowships for Mental Health Journalism

According to the Rosalynn Carter Fellowship website, informed journalists can have a significant impact upon public understanding of mental health issues, as they shape debate and trends with the words and pictures they convey. They influence their peers and stimulate discussion among the general public, and an informed public can reduce stigma and discrimination. Mental illnesses constitute some of the most serious, under-recognised, and under-reported health problems in the United States and around the world. Designed to help reduce stigma and discrimination, the Rosalynn Carter Fellowships for Mental Health Journalism provide stipends to journalists to study topics related to mental health or mental illnesses.

The Fellowships are designed to:

• Increase accurate reporting on mental health issues and decrease incorrect, stereotypical information;
• Help journalists produce high-quality work that reflects an understanding of mental health issues through exposure to well established resources in the field; and,
• Develop a cadre of better-informed print and electronic journalists who will more accurately report information through newspapers, magazines, radio, television, film, and the internet, and influence their peers to do the same.

The contents of the application packet are outlined on The Carter Center website linked below.