Dan Boyce of Colorado Public Radio Wins the Carolyn C. Mattingly Award for Mental Health Reporting with a powerful Documentary on His Own Mental Breakdown and Recovery.
Colorado Public Radio reporter Dan Boyce has won this year’s Carolyn C. Mattingly Award for Mental Health Reporting for an audio documentary about his own mental breakdown and journey back to health.
“The Long Lonely Lake,” an autobiographical portrait of severe depression and recovery, aired as a special episode of CPR’s “Back from Broken” series about mental illness and addiction.
The story was the product of three years’ work and 11 drafts, as Boyce pieced together his descent into depression, his failed treatment with drugs and then his successful treatment with electroconvulsive therapy. Boyce used interviews with family and friends to fill in gaps he could no longer remember.
NPF’s judges called it “searingly honest,” “a feat of storytelling” and “an amazing achievement.”
Boyce is the first radio reporter to win the award. In their decision, NPF judges cited the craft of his compelling 43-minute narrative, the courage required for a journalist to reveal his struggle despite the stigma associated with mental illness, and the educational value of the work in demystifying a serious disease that strikes one in 20 Americans each year.
The Luv u Project and the National Press Foundation (NPF) established the award in 2015 to honor excellence in mental health reporting among all types of media. The annual award recognizes exemplary journalism that illuminates and advances the understanding of mental health issues and treatments for the illness. It carries a $10,000 prize and honors the memory of Carolyn C. Mattingly and her legacy of activism and kindness.