Everyday Activist - Not Without Us (MLJFF 2015)

Posted on Thursday, October 22, 2015 at 06:00 PM

Not Without Us

Movie Review by Everyday Activist X CalgaryMovies.com

If you follow other posts on this blog, I’ve been traveling the last little while which often begs the question, “What on earth does she actually do for work?” For lack of a better description, I’m a therapist and have experience working with clients who have varying degrees of mental illness, mostly depression and/or anxiety. I am a firm believer in helping them manage their symptoms and lifestyle for better health over the traditional approach of medicating them. While medication has its place, it shouldn’t be forced on people against their will.

Not Without Us is a short film about people who have mental illness, but have recovered to have their own home, jobs and sense of community. The documentary also talks about legislation that would force people have to take medication against their will, rather than help them find ways to cope with their illness. From the film, when you ask clinicians what they think the best thing is for mental health patients, they automatically recommend treatment, while jobs and community come later. The logic being that once you have good health, all the other things will follow. When you ask patients what they would like, treatment falls far behind community, meaningful work and independent living. The logic being you’ll have good health, if you have good support systems.

Mental Health Peer Connection was developed to address these needs of creating good community and to help people find jobs. It’s in the family of services set up to assist people with disabilities live independently. People coming to them for help were so institutionalized that they couldn’t think for themselves. They couldn’t imagine a world where their lives and personal opinions on their health mattered. More poignantly, with peer support from people who had suffered from mental illness, and who now had jobs and families, others could see that a good life was possible.

The stigma of mental illness creates invisible barriers to isolate and create situations where people are afraid to seek assistance. One of the most common stereotypes is that people with mental health issues are dangerous. Thus they need to be treated and kept away from the regular population. Many of these misconceptions stem from past forms of care in institutions; however, statistics show healthy young men are much more likely to be violent. Until people put aside their prejudice, the best people to help those with mental illness are those who have been there, done that and thrived. Not about us, without us.

Not About Us has a running time of 28 minutes and will be screened at lunch time, 12:10 PM on Wednesday, November 18th, 2015 at the Globe Cinema downtown as part of the Marda Loop Justice Film Festival 2015. The screening is free and you are allowed to eat lunch in theatre, but bring cash for the concession if you want some popcorn.

Calgary Showtimes: Not Without Us >