Film Festival Fights Stigma
By Dan Frey
The 10th Annual Mental
Health Film Festival ran its course this past weekend, May 17 and 18,
tackling stigma with positive depictions of the mental health
community. Co-sponsored by Community Access and the New York
Association of Psychiatric Rehabilitation Services (NYAPRS), the
festival's theme this year was hospitalization and its alternatives.
In the wake of New York State's plans to reduce psychiatric hospital
beds and better fund community-based alternatives, it's a subject
with wide implications for our society as a whole.
Said festival organizer Carla
Rabinowitz of Community Access, “Hospital stays are not a panacea.
They often traumatize mental health recipients and are exorbitantly
expensive. Proven alternatives including supportive housing, therapy,
crisis respite care and the support of family and friends are all
more effective responses to psychiatric symptoms.”
This one-of-a-kind event featured
films, filmmaker panels and live audience discussions. Among the
films presented were:
Kings Park: Thirty years after
her commitment to the violent ward of Kings Park State Hospital,
filmmaker Lucy Winer returns to the now-abandoned institution that
once held her captive;
Technically Crazy:
A comedy about the power of friendship between a teen struggling with
his mental health condition and a grieving former police officer;
Coming Off Psych Drugs:
A group of mental health leaders discuss how they have successfully
tapered off of psychiatric medications through peer support and
focusing on their mental health in a holistic manner;
A Sister's Call:
One woman struggles to balance her marital family unit with efforts
to keep her adult brother at home with her despite his disabilities.
For
more information on future Film Festivals, please contact Carla
Rabinowitz at crabinowitz@communityaccess.org
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