Boston Globe Spotlight Team Named Winner of Austen Riggs Center 2017 Prize for Excellence in Mental Health Media

STOCKBRIDGE, Mass., June 14, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Austen Riggs Center is pleased to announce the winner of the 2017 Prize for Excellence in Mental Health Media:

The Boston Globe Spotlight Team, comprised of reporters Maria Cramer, Scott Helman, Michael Rezendes, Jenna Russell, and Todd Wallack, and editors Scott Allen and Anica Butler, for their story "The San Antonio Way: How one Texas city took on mental health as a community – and became a national model," part of the series, "The Desperate and the Dead."

The article showcases San Antonio's collaborative approach to providing mental health care and how that approach serves as a potential model for Massachusetts and for the nation.

The Austen Riggs Center Prize for Excellence in Mental Health Media recognizes a select group of professional journalists, writers, and media professionals who create exemplary work that contributes to the public's understanding of mental health issues. A prestigious recognition, the prize carries an award of $3,000 and is presented at the Center's annual Erikson Institute Fall Conference held in Stockbridge, MA. This year's conference, "Mental Health Parity, Ethics, and the Law: What clinicians, patients, and advocates should know," will be held on September 23, 2017.

In speaking about the winning piece, Medical Director/CEO Dr. Andrew J. Gerber stated, "The jury was very impressed with the depth and comprehensiveness of the reporting and with the quality of the Globe's article. The entire series helped to shed a light on the profound mental health issues we face in this country, and on potential solutions. Austen Riggs is honored to award this prize to the Boston Globe's Spotlight Team."

Scott Helman, reporter for the Boston Globe and member of the Spotlight Team, notes "We are delighted to receive this award from the Austen Riggs Center. From the beginning, we wanted to highlight potential solutions to the fractured mental health care system in Massachusetts, not just detail its shortcomings. Our hope is that the series leads to meaningful reforms for people with mental illness, their families, and their communities."

About the Austen Riggs Center

Austen Riggs Center, a leading psychiatric hospital and residential treatment program, has been serving adults since 1919. Within a completely open setting, patients are provided immersion in an intensive treatment milieu that emphasizes respectful engagement. Individual psychodynamic psychotherapy is provided four times a week by doctors on staff.  The Erikson Institute for Education and Research of the Austen Riggs Center studies individuals in their social contexts through research, training, education, and outreach programs in the local community and beyond.

The Austen Riggs Center is located in Stockbridge, MA. For more information about its services, please call [413] 298.5511 or [800] 517.4447 or visit www.austenriggs.org.

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SOURCE Austen Riggs Center