LIMERICK POST news editor Adam Leahy was last week awarded for his work in mental health journalism at the 2022 Headline Mental Health Media Awards.
Adam, a recent MA journalism graduate from University of Limerick, received the Student Journalism Award at the annual ceremony recognising excellence in reporting and media coverage on mental health issues and suicide.
Award organisers Headline are Ireland’s national media monitoring programme responsible for promoting responsible and accurate coverage of mental health and suicide-related issues in the Irish media.
The Limerick Post news editor received the national award from Headline programme leader Áine O’Meara and The Journal editor Sinead O’Carroll, who, on behalf of award judges, described his work as “a journey delving deeper into the mental health challenges of students” that was “well sourced, reported, and structured”.
Accepting the award, Adam thanked Headline, as well as the assembled group of the country’s leading mental health writers and reporters, for their contribution to the field and expressed his inspiration in the devotion they showed to the often strategically-avoided subject of mental health in the media.
In his academic work, Adam’s Masters research at UL focused on suicide reporting and the national print media’s depiction of Limerick City in relation to suicide.
Other awards went to RTÉ’s Barry Lenihan (Mental Health Broadcasting), Ann Murphy of The Echo (Local Print/Online), Noel Baker of The Irish Examiner (National Print/Online), writer and mental health activist Stefanie Preissner (Mental Health Champion), and Noteworthy.ie editor Maria Delaney (Special Interest award).
Earlier this year, Adam led UL’s MA in Journalism class to winning a national student media (SMEDIA) award for TV Production. He was also nominated as Journalist of the Year (National Media) at the same event.
