Investigation: Public Crisis, Private Toll

I worked with Seattle Times investigative reporter Daniel Gilbert, photographer Erika Schultz and designer/developer Emily Eng on this robust story package addressing the impact of private mental health hospitals on individuals and the entire industry: Public Crisis, Private Toll: The hidden costs of the mental-health industry’s expansion.

This is clearly a difficult investigation and topic to visualize and humanize, and access to visual information and individual stories is complicated. So a problem-solving approach — as always — was necessary. In this case, we anchored the story with a few interviews with individuals and families whose direct experience illustrate the trends and issues revealed by the data. With limited filming opportunities, I collaborated with Erika who filmed the interviews and newsroom illustrator Gabriel Campanario to create animated drawings that add visual information to the interviews. I ultimately directed and edited the videos and worked with Emily on design direction. That motif was carried through as a unifying motif for the three parts of the investigative series.

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Read the investigative series here.