The Vice Chair of the Isle of Wight Council Scrutiny Committee, Councillor Michael Lilley (Green Independent), who is also a member of the Policy and Scrutiny Committee for Adult Social Care and Health, has joined up with Sam Schroeder, a Ventnor resident, in promoting a film about mental health and mental health services on the Island.
The film entitled ‘Crisis or Awakening’ is being released to coincide with the recent publication of the Care Quality Commission’s latest report on the Isle of Wight NHS Trust in June. The report still rates the Island’s NHS services as ‘inadequate’ and this includes mental health services.
Sam Schroeder has recently established Wednesday Film and as the famous nursery rhyme titled Monday’s Child says: ‘Wednesday’s child is full of woe’. It seems an appropriate title for a film-making enterprise that’s first film is about 1 out of 4 of us who experience depression, anxiety and other mental health issues every day.
The film has been made possible thanks to Community Action Isle of Wight, Healthwatch Isle of Wight and WightAID.
Ryde East Councillor Michael Lilley has said:
“I want to see the Island’s ‘Wednesday children’ heard and Sam’s film is a great start.
“Sam is an incredible local man who has overcome great difficulties in making this film. Sam is partially disabled and has volunteered for many years in local mental health projects. He has seen at first hand the problems that mental health service users encounter every day, and the needless suffering they are going through.
“He decided to capture people’s stories on film and draw from those stories a number of key simple, workable, and affordable reforms that is, not pie-in-the-sky stuff, that would literally transform the Island’s mental health services if taken on board.
Article continues below this advertisement “The film took 2 years to make, and Sam was diagnosed with cancer half way through the project, but managed to carry on and complete it, and is now trying to organise 5 viewings of the film around the Island to promote mental health reform on the Island. He is a hero in my eyes and we need to shout his story as well as the stories he has filmed across the Island and get those who commission services to take on board Sam’s ideas”.
Councillor Lilley successfully put forward a motion about mental health to the Isle of Wight Council’s Full Council meeting in May. The motion called for reaffirmation of the Council’s commitment to making sure mental health and improvement of mental health services as a priority and that there would be a reaffirmation until the Island had services judged as excellent.
Cllr Lilley continues:
“I have been campaigning for many years on the Isle of Wight for the Wednesday voices of those who use mental health services on the Island and I am continuing to shout about this as in my view it is still not being heard.
“There has been a fortune spent on mainland consultants over the years by the IW Clinical Commissioning Group and IW NHS Trust to consult with users of services and I have seen little outcome or achievements. Here we have a local man who with only support from local charities goes out and interviews people with lived experience of mental health on the Island and produces a great film with little cost.
“We can change our continuing struggling mental health services by listening more strongly to the people who need these services and this film should be essential viewing to all those working in these services, commissioning them and designing future improved services.”
The first showing of the film in public is on Wednesday 15th August at 14:00 at Riverside Centre.
For further information about other viewings visit https://wednesdayfilms.com/films/.
