The Guardian writer Hannah Jane Parkinson has been named journalist of the year at the Mind media awards 2018.
The prize, which recognises an outstanding contribution to the understanding of mental health problems, was awarded to Parkinson for her article It’s Nothing Like a Broken Leg, published in June.
Drawing on her own experiences, she used the article to express her frustrations that, while conversations around mental health are increasing, they are often oversimplified, ignore those with rarer forms of mental illness and the difficulties of getting help.
She wrote: “It isn’t a bad thing that we are all talking more about mental health; it would be silly to argue otherwise. But this does not mean it is not infuriating to come home from a secure hospital, suicidal, to a bunch of celebrity awareness-raising selfies and thousands of people saying that all you need to do is ask for help – when you’ve been asking for help and not getting it.”
Mind said the piece “suggests that the conversation around mental health problems has perhaps somehow lost its way. Hannah explores the complexities of mental health problems, diagnosis and treatment to demonstrate that no one person, viewpoint or narrative can monopolise the topic.
“It’s important that people who have a mental health illness and people who go through periods of bad mental health are not all lumped together, and that people with mental problems are not just viewed as their illness.”
Parkinson won the young commentariat award at the Comment Awards run by Editorial Intelligence in 2017 and 2018.
