When I began covering mental health a little over a year ago, I felt like I was jumping into the deep end.

Coming from The Seattle Times’ investigative team, I knew how to file records requests, build trust with sources and cover urgent breaking news stories. But the subject area was new to me, and with it came medical terminology, acronyms I didn’t know, different insurance programs, and local government agencies.

I felt overwhelmed, and the systems of mental health care seemed so convoluted — and that’s because they are.

The best way I started figuring out how these different systems work was through reporting. A knowledgeable editor and teammates on The Times’ Mental Health Project answered lots of questions, helped add important context to my stories and sent me previous coverage.

A year later, I’ve learned so much about mental health, and I’m continually learning more from each story I report. As part of the partnership between Poynter and The Carter Center, I’ve been working on a course to help journalists on any beat report on mental health. These are three things I wish I’d known when I started.

1. Mental health care in the U.S. has been shaped by the rise and fall of large psychiatric institutions.

Understanding the history of mental health care in the U.S. is essential to reporting on how the systems function today.

From the 1800s to the mid-1900s, individuals with mental illness were often institutionalized at state mental hospitals. Populations grew over time, leading to overcrowding at institutions. Some patients were treated with experimental therapies including lobotomies, insulin comas and electroshock therapy.

Concerns grew in the 1950s over the treatment of patients in institutions. At the same time, the development of antipsychotic medications made it possible for more patients to transition back into their communities. In 1963, President John F. Kennedy signed the Community Mental Health Act into law, intending to provide federal funding for community mental health centers, where patients could be treated while working and living at home.

Many large institutions shrunk or closed as a result, but community mental health centers were never fully funded and the model of care didn’t materialize. In the 1980s, federal funding for mental health care further decreased, shifting the responsibility to states and communities.

Today, access to mental health care varies widely depending on geography, race/ethnicity and socioeconomic status, among many other factors. Inpatient hospital stays are typically shorter, with more focus on outpatient services to manage mental illness. People with serious mental illness often end up in emergency rooms or jails, or don’t get help at all.

2. Not everyone has the same experience when seeking mental health care — or the same access to care in the first place.

People of different racial and ethnic origins, different educational and socioeconomic backgrounds, sexual orientations, geographic locations, and ages have different histories of interaction with the mental health community and varying expectations around mental health care. All of these demographic factors can affect how people talk about mental illness and mental health, and how willing they are to speak out beyond the family when they or someone they know isn’t doing well.

In the U.S., psychiatry and psychology are still predominantly fields composed of white practitioners. Seeking out people with lived experience and experts from underrepresented groups in mental health will make your stories stronger and more reflective of reality.

3. Mental health touches nearly every traditional beat a newsroom covers.

When I started covering mental health, I expected to do a lot of reporting on therapists and mental health professionals. I’ve done that, but the beat also spans so much more.

Much of my reporting has involved local governments; Seattle-area cities and counties are the ones allocating funds for social services and deciding whether to build new treatment centers. I’ve also talked with Olympic athletes, university leaders and public library staff about the ways mental health affects their fields.

The wide range of mental health stories are the reason it’s so important for journalists on any beat to have a fundamental understanding of mental health coverage. And with resources like Poynter’s training or The Carter Center’s excellent guide on mental health reporting, journalists on any beat can get started.