It’s unlikely any of us who attended AHCJ’s Health Journalism 2012 conference in Atlanta will ever forget hearing from former President Jimmy Carter and former First Lady Rosalynn Carter. During that conference, the Carters made a strong impression on the 600 attendees during their keynote address on Thursday evening, April 19, and during their remarks later that weekend, as Noelle Hunter reported for AHCJ. They spoke about the work they had done and continued to do to improve health nationally and internationally.
During an interview with independent journalist and former AHCJ President Andrew Holtz, the founders of the Carter Center in Atlanta spoke candidly about mental health parity in the United States and disease eradication in developing nations. (Here’s a longer version of the interview with better audio.)
Established in 1982, the Carter Center works in partnership with Emory University to improve human rights and alleviate suffering. The center says, “It seeks to prevent and resolve conflicts, enhance freedom and democracy, and improve health.”
The 39th president of the United States and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002, Carter died on Sunday, Dec. 29, 2024, at his home in Plains, Ga., after more than a year in hospice. Rosalynn also died at home on Nov. 19, 2023. She was 96. The Carter Center noted that at 100 years of age, Jimmy Carter was the longest-lived president in U.S. history. He served as president from 1977 to 1981.
Compassion for all
Looking back on the HJ12 conference, Holtz said Jimmy Carter spoke about his compassion for people who are less fortunate not only in America but around the world. Here’s a link to the conversation.
Rosalynn Carter spoke of the need for everyone with mental health problems to get the care they need through health insurers. In particular, she mentioned the Paul Wellstone and Pete Domenici Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008, the federal law that prohibits health insurers from setting lower limits on mental health or substance-use benefits than they set on medical and surgical benefits.
Mental health fellowships for journalists
The mental health program at the Carter Center includes the Rosalynn Carter Fellowships for Mental Health Journalism in which fellows learn how to use storytelling to dismantle the stigma and discrimination that millions of people face every day, the center said.
In her remarks, Rosalynn Carter promoted the fellowship program and presented statistics on mental health coverage from one newspaper, the Portland Oregonian. In 2004, The Oregonian’s investigative reporter, Michelle Roberts, Ph.D., was chosen as a Carter Center journalism fellow covering mental health. In the year before Roberts was selected, the Oregonian published six articles about mental health, Rosalynn Carter said.
During and after the fellowship, Roberts reported on longstanding abuse and inhumane practices at a 145-year-old psychiatric hospital in Oregon. Following that reporting, the state closed the hospital and The Oregonian’s editorials earned the 2006 Pulitzer Prize for editorial writing based in part on her investigation. In 2007, she shared the Oregonian’s Pulitzer Prize for breaking news, Roberts noted on her website.
In addition to promoting the journalism fellowship, Rosalynn Carter also spoke about the struggle to get parity under the 2008 federal law and about the stigma, prejudice and discrimination people with mental illness face.
“There’s been progress on this issue in the many years since that interview was done,” Holtz commented. “There’s certainly a lot more discussion everywhere and more understanding about mental health.”
Andy Miller, the founder of Georgia Health News who now writes for KFF Health News, commented on how much Rosalynn Carter means to the mental health community in Georgia and across the country. Having both Rosalynn and Jimmy Carter at the conference was impressive. “As an organization, that’s certainly something we can be proud of,” he added.
Guinea worm eradication
Another significant effort Jimmy Carter discussed during HJ12 was the Carter Center’s Guinea Worm Eradication Program, which operates in some of the poorest countries in the world, such as Angola, Chad, Ethiopia, Mali, and South Sudan, the Carter Center noted.
Last year, Jeffrey Kluger reported for Time magazine that when the Carter Center started its work to eradicate Guinea worm in 1986, the parasitic disease infected 3.5 million people annually in 21 countries.
In 2023, the CDC reported only 14 human cases of Guinea worm worldwide, representing a 99.99% reduction from the estimated 3.5 million reported when the Guinea Worm Eradication Program began in 1986, according to a CDC spokesperson.
Even the way both Jimmy and Rosalynn approached their deaths served as an inspiration, as Bill Barrow reported for the Associated Press. Barrow quoted Angela Novas, a hospice and palliative care consultant for the Hospice Foundation of America: “It’s been massive to have the Carters be so public,” she said. “It has shed hospice in a new light, and it’s raised questions for people” to learn more.
