Leona O'Neill, journalism lecturer, on dealing with trauma

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October is Mental Health Month. While there have been some breakthroughs in conversations around mental health in journalism, there is still plenty of work left to do to break taboos.

In this week's podcast, we speak to Leona O'Neill; lecturer in journalism at Ulster University in Northern Ireland. For more than two decades, she was a freelance journalist and just recently the co-author of a new book, Breaking: Trauma in the Newsroom. That book features 16 journalists, including herself, sharing their struggles with mental health as a result of their reporting.

Many will remember the tragic death of journalist Lyra McKee in 2019, who was shot whilst covering riots in the Creggan estate in Derry. O'Neill was there when it happened. 

Witnessing this murder left her with deep trauma. Her chapter goes in depth on how she found herself working on auto-pilot, facing an onslaught of online threats and abuse, and her road to becoming a university lecturer and inspiring the next generation of reporters.

The message is clear: trauma does not give us a heads-up. But when it does strike, reporters need a culture of support and easily accessible options.

A word from me on #MentalHealthDay. Let’s look after each other and ourselves ❤️ #Journalism #mentalhealth pic.twitter.com/0dwvXtqVDp

— Leona O'Neill (@LeonaONeill1) October 10, 2022

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