The Luv U Project in memory of Carolyn C Mattingly

As is tradition, we began the year working with our partners at the National Press Foundation on the Carolyn C. Mattingly Award for Mental Health Reporting-the most prestigious journalistic award for mental health coverage in America. The Award recognizes exemplary journalism that illuminates and advances the understanding of mental health issues and treatments. It carries a $10,000 prize for the winner. We were proud to announce that the 2024 Carolyn C. Mattingly Award for Mental Health Reporting was awarded to The Seattle Times for its series untangling the complex maze of insurance coverage for mental health conditions. Insurance often "feels like an impossible topic to write about," but these reporters did so in a way that was both fascinating and clarifying, NPF judges said. The series showed that while federal law requires mental health to be covered at the same level as physical health, insurers often fail to live up to that standard - with little oversight. Seattle Times mental health reporter Hannah Furfaro investigated patterns of insurance denials to reveal that some patients with eating disorders were essentially given the message that they would have to starve more to get doctor-recommended care. Lauren Frohne and Jennifer Luxton created an animated video, which NPF judges praised for "allowing a teen's voice to be heard" regarding her experience with insurance denials. Judges also noted Seattle Times mental health reporter Michelle Baruchman's strong conceptual approach to telling the story of "ghost therapists why it seems so hard to find a therapist who will take your insurance. Out of 400 therapists the Seattle Times contacted through insurance website lists, just 32 confirmed openings for new clients. At least one insurance company changed their website as a result of her reporting. This year, in a new initiative, we partnered with the National Press Foundation to serve as the lead sponsor of an important new Fellowship Program focusing on covering Workplace Mental Health. The purpose was to educate and encourage accurate, nuanced and in-depth journalism on mental health issues, treatments and advances at work. The two-day training fellowship was held in Washington, D.C., May 21-22, 2024. Fifteen journalists were selected as fellows and the faculty featured 17 speakers across seven sessions. All fellows also attend the entire Award ceremony at the National Press Club recognizing our 2024 journalism winner, with a robust Q & A session. In the first 90 days after the fellowship, the fellows produced 36 related stories published on websites with a total of 776.5 million unique monthly visits. The National Press Foundation created packages for each of the seven sessions, including a takeaways story, a transcript, video, photography, slides and other relevant resources. Of note, a number of the journalists expressed a desire for several more days of training on the subject of workplace mental health. It is our intent to again sponsor and expand this initiative in 2025. As shared regularly in our updates, we have a strong and productive alliance with the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health. Our commitment and work to build the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health/The Luv u Project Center for Mental Health in the Workplace continues as the country's first academic home for workplace mental health research and development. In the spring we launched our third-year cycle for the Carolyn C. Mattingly Award for Mental Health in the Workplace. The idea was conceived as a result of our 2016 symposium with the John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health (JHBSPH), entitled Mental Health in the Workplace: A Public Health Summit and published in 2018 in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine (JOEM). The Award focuses specifically on robust approaches that support employee mental health. Criteria include mental health benefits and resources, workplace policies and practices, leadership support, and efforts to create a positive work environment and organizational culture above and beyond what is offered in a general health and well-being program. Recognizing that workplace mental health efforts are most effective in the context of an overarching culture of health and comprehensive efforts that enhance employee well-being, the Workplace Award is built on the foundation of broad-based psychologically healthy workplace practices including opportunities for employee involvement, health and safety efforts, training and development, work-life support, reward and recognition, and strategic communication. Winners of the 2024 Carolyn C. Mattingly Award for Mental Health in the workplace were Shell and Franklin County Cooperative. Shell is a global energy and petrochemical company with over 80,000 employees globally. The Franklin County Cooperative is responsible for the benefits and wellness programs of more than 40 government agencies in Central Ohio, serving more than 6500 employees and their families. The Awards were presented at our Annual Evening of Luv, held in Bethesda, MD each November. The judges also recognized two additional companies, Careforth and Higginbotham, as Honorable Mention recipients this year. At Hopkins, we work in concert with and our funding supports the JHBSPH's Department of Mental Health and the Johns Hopkins POE (Psychological, Organizational, Environmental) Total Worker Health Center in Mental Health. The inspiration for the POE Center came from the initial financial investment of and collaboration with The Luv u Project, when we convened a ''meeting of the minds'' at a symposium organized at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health on October 20, 2016, entitled, Mental Health in the Workplace: A Public Health Summit. As a result of our sponsorship of a unique program last fiscal year, Johns Hopkins and outside entities assembled to discuss the state-of-the-art and science of workplace mental health and wellbeing as applied at institutions of higher education. By including thought leaders from both inside and outside the JHBSPH, including academic researchers, human resource executives, policymakers, senior leaders, mental health and wellbeing practitioners, government officials, and other interested parties, the Summit focused on leaders at all levels within an organization. As a result, results of that work were published in the Dec. 2024 issue of JOEM (Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine) as Proceedings from a National Summit on Workplace Mental Health and Well-being---A Focus on the Graduate Academic Environment. This past fall, at our annual An Evening of Luv, we honored remarkable people across the spectrum of mental health. Notably, we publicly awarded and shared the stories of success of 2024 Carolyn C. Mattingly Award for Mental Health in the Workplace winners before a packed room of Luv u Project supporters. This year's event also recognized Jane and Rex Huggins, dear friends of The Luv u Project, as our 2024 An Evening of Luv Honorees and Michelle Ashton as the second-ever Luving Heart Award recipient. You can read more details about the award winners and all our initiatives on The Luv u Project website: theluvuproject.org. In addition to all the exciting work outlined above, we remain faithfully committed to our "Acts of Kindness" initiatives. In October, we sponsored the 2024 Women Moving Forward Conference at the Maryland Correctional Institution for Women. Since the Program's inception, The National Association of Women's Judges and countless other dedicated volunteers have united to introduce critical resources and offer the guidance essential to help empower women scheduled for release back into society. Our prisons are mental institutions, and we must address the challenges within. This year we continued our commitment to student scholarships at Montgomery College (MC), based in Rockville, Maryland. MC is continuously ranked as one of the nation's most highly regarded community colleges and serves a diverse student population. The Luv u Project annually funds scholarships to candidates who meet financial need criteria, have an active GPA of 2.5 or higher, and have an active interest/involvement in mental health services-all verified by independent College officials. These scholarships are awarded in memory of our good friend Mitchell Greenberg. We remain excited and empowered by our uLead initiative. Building on our mission, uLead engages and embraces young professionals in conversations about mental health to open new channels of opportunity. The uLead Leadership Network is an exclusive community of leaders under 40, who have the ability to influence and drive change within their workplace. These are high-achieving rising stars, who are deeply committed to breaking down the stigma of mental health in both the workplace and in society. See Schedule O for continued program service description.