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Clinical psychologist and vocal critic of psychiatry Richard Bentall reveals why social inequality, racism and the built environment have a far more significant role to play in mental illness than the biomedical establishment acknowledges.
The Depression Project challenges society's view on what a mental health problem is, and to show that in fact, no-one is "normal". It is currently being used within the NHS as a training tool. It was also shown as part of the University of Birmingham's Mental Health Awareness Week.
We call mad people lots of names. Most of them are not meant to be complimentary. But what do mad people call themselves? Do they accept labels that others stick on them? Do they apply their own labels? Why might one person choose a different label than another? This is a short documentary in which 12 Toronto activists discuss how they identify themselves. Documentaries are one of Ryerson University's online learning tools, used by instructors to spark discussion in the online student forums. This documentary is a part of unique and engaging online course called 'Mad People's History' (CDST 504), developed by Digital Education Strategies at The Chang School and David Reville, an instructor with the School of Disability Studies at Ryerson University.
Channel 4 screened Eleventh Hour's "We're not mad we're angry" in 1986. This was a unique docu-drama which took two years to make with a group of current and former psychiatric patients who held full editorial control. Many of the actors in the drama sequences had been service users; others were involved in the editing and production process. Many of the survivors interviewed were activists such as: Jan Wallcraft who became Mindlink's first co-ordinator; David Crepaz-Keay, who went on to manage Mental Health Media, then became Head of Empowerment and Social Inclusion at the Mental Health Foundation; Peter Campbell, the founder of Survivor's Speak Out'; Mike Lawson, the first survivor vice-chair of National Mind. This is the documentary in full, now available on Youtube.