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Jessica McAllen on Muck Rack

Jessica McAllen

Verified
Bristol, New York, New Zealand, Wellington
As seen in: The Baffler, Stuff.co.nz, The Irish Times, Curbed, Radio New Zealand (RNZ), The Nation, BBC Science Focus, The Spinoff, Newsroom New Zealand, New Zealand Geographic.
Covers:  Health, Social issues, Mental Health
Deputy digital editor @sciencefocus

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Jessica McAllen’s Journalist Portfolio

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Do No Harm

Do No Harm

The complex ethics of portraying suicide.

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Total Cuomo Show

Total Cuomo Show

Going slide-for-slide with New York’s favorite PowerPoint equivocator

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Mental health working group replacement criticised

Mental health working group replacement criticised

The 21-member working group set up to advise the government's response to the mental health inquiry has been …

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Māori NGO leaks supplementary mental health inquiry report

Māori NGO leaks supplementary mental health inquiry report

A Māori health organisation has prematurely released a 207-page report on Māori submissions to the mental hea…

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Mental Health and Addiction Inquiry vague in parts and needed to deliver more to provide meaningf...

Mental Health and Addiction Inquiry vague in parts and needed to deliver more to provide meaningf...

The Government's long-awaited Mental Health and Addiction Inquiry report was released this week. Jessica McAl…

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The Inquiry: How to understand the mental health system

The Inquiry: How to understand the mental health system

The Mental Health and Addiction Inquiry's public meetings showed a divide in opinion between family members a…

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Articles

BadRx | Jess McAllen

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By Jessica McAllen Verified, Athena Sofides, Sydney Calkin, Piper French
| The Baffler Verified
Cole Schmidtknecht was among the hundreds of workers employed by Kriete Truck Center in Green Bay, Wisconsin. The twenty-two-year-old, along with 54 percent of Americans, had health insurance through his job: Kriete Truck Center contracted with UnitedHealthcare and its pharmacy benefit manager, OptumRx. Like other PBMs, OptumRx works with insurers and large employers to manage their prescription drug benefits. This arrangement had worked well for Schmidtknecht up until January of last year.
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The Rapid and Dubious Rise of the Internet’s New Favorite Therapy

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By Jessica McAllen Verified
| The Nation Verified
Feature / April 9, 2025 Trauma’s New Look Internal Family Systems is the latest therapy trend for a traumatized United States. But can splitting ourselves into parts be a science? The Rapid and Dubious Rise of the Internet’s New Favorite Therapy Internal Family Systems has been wholeheartedly embraced by celebrities and desperate patients alike. But is it a science—or a scam? Illustration by Hanna Barczyk.
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Who Gets to Be a Therapist?

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By Jessica McAllen Verified
| The Baffler Verified
Weston Allen knew he wasn’t going to be popular with his professors before he even started his PhD in counseling at the University of Virginia. Weeks before the program began, Weston, who has bowel disease and dyslexia, had filed a civil rights complaint against the school about the lack of adequate disability accommodation in student housing.
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See all 41 licensed articles (77 Total)

Awards

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NIB Junior Health Scholarship (Canon Media Awards)

2016 - Health
View Award

Mental Health Services Learning Network Special Journalism Award

2016 - Mental Health Journalism

The MHS awards are funded with help from the New Zealand and Australian governments. They promote and reward excellence and accuracy in media coverage about mental health.

Asia NZ scholarship

2015 - Internship

The Asia New Zealand Foundation supports New Zealand journalism student graduates and working journalists to intern at news organisations in Asia.