Community champions, workplace support programs and community groups who have come together to support each other were some of the recipients of this year's Mental Health Matters Awards.
The annual awards run by WayAhead were presented during the annual Mental Health Month launch event held at Shangri-La Hotel in Sydney on Wednesday 27 September.
NSW Minister for Mental Health MP Tanya Davies and NSW Mental Health Commissioner Catherine Lourey graced the event that was attended by more than 200 people.
SBS Punjabi won the Media Award for the 2018 Mental Health Matters Awards for four stories that were broadcast during the past year - two were researched and presented by Preetinder Singh Grewal while the other two were produced and broadcast by Executive Producer Manpreet Kaur Singh.
Dr Preetinder Singh Grewal received this award on behalf of SBS Punjabi for raising awareness in the fields of the mental health and wellbeing.
During the award ceremony, Dr Singh emphasized the need to raise mental health awareness among the culturally and linguistically diverse communities (CALD).
“Sometimes people from migrant communities are not vocal to share their mental health problems,” he said. “We’ve the advantage as we speak their own language. We’ve access to many language-speaking mental health practitioners who provide advice on how to get the much-needed help."
'Mental Health Matters' Award winners for 2018. Source: Supplied
“Having a mental illness and asking for helping is nothing to be ashamed of. If you’re not feeling well, it’s important that you talk to a doctor, a mental health organization or somebody you trust,” he says.
SBS Punjabi has been consistently covering stories of mental health focusing on the Punjabi speaking community, broadcasting in the Punjabi language.
On the website and social media, the stories are published both in Punjabi and English to reach a broader audience, including second and third generation of migrants.
The stories started a conversation on the program through talkbacks, as well as on social media, engaging thousands of Australian residents who face the same mental health challenges of the broad community, plus the specifics of their own community group.
These stories were produced and published to: raise awareness about mental health issues and its incidence, postnatal and pregnancy depression.
On top of the journalistic value, this is a service provided by SBS Punjabi that is reaching a growing Indian community. It opens a dialogue and a necessary conversation within the community.
Know more about the two SBS Punjabi team members whose stories were adjudged as winners in this years Mental Health Matters Awards:
SBS Punjabi's Preetinder Singh Grewal with Thi Minh Tam Nguyen who won NSW Mental Health Commissioner's Community Champion Award. Source: Supplied
Manpreet Kaur Singh, the Executive Producer, has been with SBS for over 25 years. She is a Walkley-nominated journalist-broadcaster who has highlighted the history, achievements and major issues concerning Australia’s Punjabi community, winning several national and international awards for her investigative reporting.
READ MORE
Manpreet Kaur Singh
Dr Preetinder Singh Grewal, the Digital and Audio Producer, joined SBS Punjabi in 2013. He is a cancer research scientist who completed a PhD in medicine from UNSW, Sydney. A very popular broadcaster, he has covered a wide variety of stories pertaining to health and lifestyle, visa and migration, human rights, racism and entertainment.
READ MORE
Preetinder Singh Grewal
The SBS Punjabi program is broadcast every weeknight from 9-10pm, and enjoys a committed audience on-air and online. It has a significant digital footprint, with over 180,000 people following its Facebook page.
Know more about our‘Mental Health Matters’ coverage
Over 2 million Australians experience mental health difficulties at work
