Fronting up on mental health

The host of this year’s Mind Media Awards has been chosen not least because of her own experience of mental health issues and her efforts to get the subject out there on Twitter

Actress and writer Rebecca Front, who caused a Twitter stir around mental illness earlier in the year, is to host the mental health charity Mind’s annual Media Awards.

The star, best known for her roles in comedy hits The Thick Of It, I’m Alan Partridge and Grandma’s House, will host the awards on 28 November after revealing on the social networking site that she had previously had mental health issues.

Under the hashtag #whatstigma, the actress tweeted back in February: “Hey well known Twitterers. Fancy taking the stigma out of mental illness? I’ll start: I’m Rebecca Front & I’ve had panic attacks. #whatstigma”

The tweet led to tens of thousands of other people from across the world choosing to reveal their own experiences of mental health issues under the #whatstigma hashtag, including other well known celebrities such as Alastair Campbell, Caitlin Moran and Sue Perkins.

Hashtags are a device used on Twitter to identify keywords or topics in tweets, and are often used to categorize messages relating to certain campaigns, trends or subjects.

She then went on to appear in a video on YouTube entitled “Say something, don’t keep it all to yourself,” in which she encouraged others to share their problems in a bid to reduce the social stigma and barriers that still exist around discussing mental health.

Rebecca said: “The media is hugely influential in shaping people’s opinions of mental health, for both good and ill. It’s vital that we celebrate the good work that is done to challenge the stigma that sadly still exists around mental health, and I am delighted to be hosting the Mind Media Awards 2011 to do exactly this.”

The Mind Media Awards have been running since 2007, and aim to celebrate portrayals of mental illness and health issues across the media, as well as promoting accurate and balanced reporting of mental health. Previous winners have come from across the spectrum, including comedy, drama, current affairs and documentary output.

The 2011 shortlist features a number of high-profile figures, including X Factor judge Tulisa’s BBC3 documentary My Mum and Me, in which the N-Dubz singer revealed she has spent large periods of her life caring for her mother who has mental health problems.

Other notable figures on the list include well known mental health campaigner Stephen Fry, while a Radio 5 Live special programme about the suicide of German national football team goalkeeper Robert Enke, who lived with severe depression, also makes the list.

This year’s awards will feature a new category for the first time, the New Media award in memory of Mark Hanson, who was a public relations strategist who specialised in advising clients on new media. However, privately he battled with depression and anxiety, and committed suicide in March 2011.

The full shortlist:

Documentary
• Dolphin Boy (More 4)
• Tulisa: My Mum and Me (BBC 3)
• The Wounded Platoon (BBC 2)
• Village of the Dolls (More 4)
• Chilean Miners: What Happened Next (BBC 2)

Drama
• Exile (BBC 1)
• Casualty (BBC 1)
• Holby City (BBC 1)

New Media
• Campaign against living miserably
• Confessions of a serial insomniac
• You Tube: Trichotillomania
• Dawn Willis - Sharing the news and views of the mentally wealthy
• SuperMe

News and Current Affairs
• BBC Radio 1 Newsbeat: Access to talking treatments
• BBC Radio 4 The Today programme: Inside Broadmoor
• BBC Radio 5 Live Victoria Derbyshire: Alcoholic GP
• BBC Radio 4 You & Yours: Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing

Speech Radio
• Radio Wanno: Interview with Stephen Fry
• BBC Radio 1: Surgery with Aled
• BBC Radio 5 Live: Robert Enke a life too short
• BBC Radio 4: Mentally ill and refusing surgery
• BBC Radio 4 - Jon Ronson...Voices in the Head

Journalist of the year
• Amelia Gentleman: The Guardian
• Carolyn Atkinson: BBC Radio 4 You & Yours
• Catherine Bennion-Pedley: Company magazine
• Mark Rice-Oxley: The Guardian
• Claudia Hammond: BBC Radio 4 All in the Mind

Student journalist of the year
• Jemma Coburn: Mental health – an investigation into discrimination (University of Lincoln)
• Dave Jackson: The hidden clique (University of Nottingham)
• Joshua Jackson: Suffering in silence (University of Lincoln)