About Impatient-the doco

About Impatient - The Documentary

The Film

IMPATIENT

IS A STORY OF HUMAN RIGHTS

AND THE RIGHTS OF OUR MOST FRAGILE PEOPLE:

Females (girls, young women, women and older women) with mental illness issues.

The IMPATIENT campaign aims for vulnerable women and girls inside psychiatric wards to have access to a safe and secure environment whilst enduring one of the most traumatic experiences of their lives, as well as educating those on the outside to the situation.

In a world where personal safety and security is critical for a successful recovery,

it is in fact the least considered element in the mental health care sector.

Made with spirit and humour, IMPATIENT! is a longitudinal cinema verite documentary that

follows Sue E. Armstrong, award winning, commissioned fine artist, filmmaker and peer advocate for females with lived experience of mental illness

The documentary follows Sue over a 10 year period, as she pounds the pavement, knocks on doors, meets with lawyers professors, parliamentarians, sector workers/staff, concerned citizens and picnics with females with a lived experience of mental illness

Sue uses her talents to present us with a unique, insider’s perspective on the psychiatric system,

raising critical questions about its ability to safely and respectfully treat females

at their most vulnerable.

IMPATIENT! follows artist and activist Sue Armstrong’s efforts to make the Victorian mental health system safer for females. Graphic stories of the rape and sexual abuse of female psychiatric patients have shocked Victorians, but it’s all terribly familiar to Sue. “Genetically radical” and with her own lived experience of mental illness, Sue has been campaigning for fundamental changes in the treatment of female’s mental health for over three decades.

A lot has been achieved over the years, but females continue to be unsafe.

Sue’s main goal is to see the re-establishment of female-only psychiatric wards, Australia wide and internationally.

As simple and as logical as Sue’s proposition sounds, there are significant obstacles to overcome – financial, political and practical.

Sue tilts at her campaign in her own way.

A trained fine artist and figurehead in the outsider artist movement,

Sue brings her intelligence, humour and creativity to her efforts.

In between making zombie movies and posing in penguin costume, Sue takes us inside the mental health peer advocacy movement, reveals the history of female’s treatment, introduces us to the psychiatric profession, and leads us into the political realm, where the crucial decisions about the safety of vulnerable females must be made – and made soon. With glimmers of political will emerging from the current state government, Sue and her colleagues must seize the moment to push through the most significant reforms for female mental health since the 1960s.

Without real, systemic change, Sue fears that yet another generation of females will be subjected to sexual abuse and harassment whilst in psychiatric care – and she knows too well the consequences.

IMPATIENT!

is made by a female-only crew, with an emphasis on the dignity of mental health peer advocates,

but also with spirit and humour.

Sue’s experience, commitment and considerable charm

make her a compelling and authoritative guide to a complex issue that demands our immediate attention.

Producer Leesa Carriage of Chocolate Scorpion Productions says "During this journey with Sue, I have heard such a wide variety of perspectives about the reasons why wards in hospitals should not be mixed sex, which has bought up even more questions ... about just how the medical professionals make the decisions that they do.

The simple fact that the policy makers back in the 1960’s decided to combine the wards because they

thought that the women would civilise the men was incredibly shortsighted of them."

The Makers

IMPATIENT! is a partnership between Chocolate Scorpion Productions

and the Female Issues Group of Mixed Nuts Media, Inc.

Chocolate Scorpion Productions

is a small, independent team of seriously curious and talented people, who want to educate the wider audience while educating themselves on a broad range of topics,

primarily on animals and the environment.

Our projects are created and developed with every platform of media broadcast known to humanity in mind and created for every man, woman and child of every age group, religious, political and sexual persuasion, socio economic background, race, culture and abilities.

For every one of this earth and even those that are not, we want to create the opportunity

to reach you in any which way we can, to open minds, break barriers, clear pathways,

present alternative options, create transparency, discussion and debate, open dialogue and encourage positive, progressive and just global social change whilst entertaining you.

www.chocolatescorpion.com

Mixed Nuts Media Inc. (MNM)

is a not-for-profit media, arts and training organisation, run by people with a psychiatric disability,

for people with a psychiatric disability.

MNM’s aims are to increase self-esteem, reduce social isolation and expand opportunities

for people with a psychiatric illness by delivering training, mentoring, video programs, arts projects and paid productions in the mental health sector.

The Female Issues Group focuses on encouraging females to participate, and ensures MNM is sensitive to the needs of females with mental illness issues.

www.mixednutsmedia.org.au/

IMPATIENT! aims to embed the perspective of those

with a lived experience of mental illness into the discussions that affect them,

and is a small part of Mixed Nuts Media's long-term strategy

for constructive intervention, progressive industry policies and positive,

accurate media coverage of critical mental health issues.

IMPATIENT! aims to engage policymakers, the psychiatric profession,

the public and mental health consumers in a discussion on solutions

for this ongoing crisis in women’s mental health care.

In particular, IMPATIENT seeks to provoke policy change on women’s care in Victorian psychiatric facilities.