Dean Yates

Dean Yates was head of mental health and wellbeing strategy at Reuters, the world’s largest news provider, for nearly three years until January 2020. Before that he was a journalist, bureau chief and senior editor at Reuters for more than 22 years. A diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder in early 2016 ended his news career. Dean was later told he had moral injury as well.

Dean was a top news editor for Reuters in Asia; bureau chief in Baghdad during which three of his staff were killed in 2007 and a deputy bureau chief in Jerusalem and Jakarta. He covered the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami in Indonesia’s Aceh province and the 2002 Bali nightclub bombings. He first covered an earthquake in Indonesia in 1994. He has been admitted three times to the Ward 17 psychiatric unit in Melbourne.

Dean is writing a memoir about the journey that he and his family have been on during 20 years of PTSD and more than a decade of moral injury. He is finding new meaning in life and rediscovering what is most important — family. His memoir is called Ward 17: The Key To Hope Lies Here. Dean is also an outspoken advocate on workplace mental health, press freedom, government accountability and transparency as well as other issues.