Sockwashing, Service Use and Making Movies

Abstract

I am a service-user practitioner, working in the areas of film and mental health. I have my own experience of mental health and use this in my work. This chapter addresses how these two areas are related and the principles under which I conduct my work. This practice has included making films for blue-chip corporates, screening my own work at a Cannes fringe festival and other international festivals and interviewing a wide range of people from CEOs to forensic mental health service users. In mental health, I use film as an educative tool in three main ways: to reduce stigma and discrimination, to provide feedback on services and represent the voice of the service user, and finally as a tool for self-reflection and personal development. I shall address these in this order, and then describe a case study of one of my films, Makers of Modern Asylum, which exemplifies all of these areas. However, first I want to explore the link between mental health and film-making, which was not one I sought, but is an aspect of my practice that I now relish for its challenge and the practical benefit of the change that can be effected through it.