Speaker 1: Hudson River Radio dot com. It beats listening to nothing.
Speaker 2: My goodness, it's.
Speaker 3: Being Frank.
Speaker 2: Fright were the only way to be is Frank. Hello everyone,
Speaker 2: and welcome to Being Frank, where the only way to
Speaker 2: be is well Frank. I'm your host, Frank Lebono, and
Speaker 2: I'd like to thank you for joining us on what
Speaker 2: we like to call the Intelligent Conversation Podcast, where no
Speaker 2: conversations out of bounds and all points of view are welcome.
Speaker 2: Regular listeners to our program know that we record live
Speaker 2: to tape and I give you the date it is
Speaker 2: the twenty first of January. That gives you a little
Speaker 2: context and relevance. And we see the images almost every
Speaker 2: day an obviously deranged person committing an act of disturbing
Speaker 2: and random violence. In fact, I just saw such a
Speaker 2: report on the TV news this morning, and they seem
Speaker 2: to be unfortunately increasing in violence. Also important to make
Speaker 2: this point here that although most don't resort to extreme violence,
Speaker 2: it is still widely estimated that fourteen million Americans suffer
Speaker 2: from a serious mental health disorder. We repeatedly claim this
Speaker 2: issue is one of the driving forces behind many of
Speaker 2: society's problems today, and we need more mental health access
Speaker 2: for everyone, but nothing seems to be getting done to
Speaker 2: improve the situation. It appears that we would rather not
Speaker 2: deal with the reality that mental illness plays in the
Speaker 2: lives of so many American families. That is until filmmaker
Speaker 2: Gail Friedman made No One Cares About Crazy People, a
Speaker 2: powerful and deeply human documentary that confronts one of the
Speaker 2: most urgent, yet overlooked crises of our time, the reality
Speaker 2: of living with severe mental illness in America. At its core,
Speaker 2: as a moving portrait of families navigating unimaginable challenges as
Speaker 2: they fight for care, dignity, and understanding. Through fearless storytelling
Speaker 2: and remarkable access, the film illuminates the lives of individuals
Speaker 2: too often ignored or misunderstood, offering a rare combination of
Speaker 2: artific integrity, emotional depth, and social urgency. Critically insightful and
Speaker 2: deeply compassionate, No One Cares About Crazy People invites viewers
Speaker 2: to reckon with stigma, confront structural failures, and reimagine what
Speaker 2: a human mental health system could look like. Bold, timely,
Speaker 2: and unforgettable, it stands as a testament to the power
Speaker 2: of a documentary film to illuminate, challenge and inspire change.
Speaker 2: I took that, by the way, from the press kit
Speaker 2: for the film, so very well written. The film is
Speaker 2: being presented by a Rivertown Film at the Niac Center
Speaker 2: on Wednesday, January twenty eighth at eight pm. There will
Speaker 2: be a discussion to follow with our guests, who we
Speaker 2: will meet shortly. Is also being brought in addition to
Speaker 2: Rivertown Film and the Nyack Center by the Greater Mental
Speaker 2: Health of New York and joining us now for some
Speaker 2: intelligent conversation are three wonderful representatives from each and again
Speaker 2: please take note these are very abbreviated bios just to
Speaker 2: save some time. So first up as producer, writer, director
Speaker 2: of the film, Gail Friedman, a one time expiring concert pianist,
Speaker 2: Gail abandoned the stage for the screen many years ago,
Speaker 2: with brief stops in academia, government and healthcare along the way.
Speaker 2: It hasn't exactly been a planned migration, but in twenty
Speaker 2: five years and as Award Women went on excuse me.
Speaker 2: An award winning filmmaker. She has produced, directed, and written
Speaker 2: dozens of documentaries on a wide range of subjects. She
Speaker 2: has also taught at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
Speaker 2: Her creative output encompasses independent projects as well as extensive
Speaker 2: work for PBS network, television, cable syndication, and the Internet,
Speaker 2: along with educational and nonprofit films. Welcome Gail, thank you. Okay,
Speaker 2: we'll continue with our panels and then we'll get into
Speaker 2: our discussion. Next up. Alissa Schmidt is a licensed mental
Speaker 2: health counselor in the state of New York. For the
Speaker 2: last thirteen years, she has been working at Greater Mental
Speaker 2: Health of New York, a not for profit organization providing
Speaker 2: an array of mental health, substance use, case management, and
Speaker 2: other support services to individuals in Rockland and Westchester Counties.
Speaker 2: As Vice President of Mobile Support Services, Alissa oversees several
Speaker 2: programs designed to meet individuals where they are at. These
Speaker 2: services work with individuals in the community, in their homes
Speaker 2: wherever they spend their time to recover their goals. Alissa,
Speaker 2: thank you so much for joining us. Hither okay. Next
Speaker 2: up from Rivertown and one of the hosts of the
Speaker 2: movie is Verra Erno Vera is an award winning documentary
Speaker 2: filmmaker who began her career work on Joseph Campbell and
Speaker 2: The Power of Myth with Bill Moyers for PBS. She's
Speaker 2: also known in Rockland County for her work on Mega Mall,
Speaker 2: the feature documentary film that tells the story of Rockland's
Speaker 2: Palisades Center Mall. She co produced Backpack Full of Cash,
Speaker 2: The Real Cost at Privatizing America's Public Schools, narrated by
Speaker 2: Matt Damon, and is currently developing a follow up film
Speaker 2: on the subject of school vouchers. In twenty seventeen, Narroneau
Speaker 2: joined the board of Rivertown Film, Rockland's only not for
Speaker 2: profit dedicated to the art of motion pictures, and in
Speaker 2: twenty twenty six she became the organization's co executive director.
Speaker 2: Welcome Verra, Thank you, Welcome ladies, Thank you so much.
Speaker 2: I know it's a busy time for you organizing the film,
Speaker 2: and obviously you all have other projects going on as well,
Speaker 2: so I really appreciate you taking the time. You know,
Speaker 2: maybe we should start with kind of a broad thing
Speaker 2: and then will narrow down our questioning. So let's start
Speaker 2: with you, Gail, please, if you would, and I gave
Speaker 2: a brief introduction, but give us a little bit more detail,
Speaker 2: give us a synopsis of the film what will We Say?
Speaker 4: Well, the film kind of had a three pronged origin,
Speaker 4: which speaks to how it evolved. It was inspired by
Speaker 4: a book of the same name, No One Cares About
Speaker 4: Crazy People, by an extraordinary author named Ron Powers. If
Speaker 4: your viewers are and your listeners are interested in the subject,
Speaker 4: I highly recommend Ron's book. It's brilliant. And Ron is
Speaker 4: a Pulitzer Emmy winning New York Times best selling writer.
Speaker 4: This was not a subject he ever expected to tackle
Speaker 4: until both of his sons were diagnosed with schizophrenia, and
Speaker 4: his younger son, who was a musical prodigy, took his
Speaker 4: own life a week before his twenty first birthday in
Speaker 4: the family home. And so Ron, having never really expected
Speaker 4: to write about this subject some years later, felt compelled
Speaker 4: to tackle it. And the book is a kind of
Speaker 4: a hybrid narrative of family memoir and deeply researched reportage
Speaker 4: about the mental health system or non system, going back
Speaker 4: centuries really, but particularly looking at the last fifty sixty
Speaker 4: years in American life. So and I knew Ron when
Speaker 4: I was a baby in the business at CBS News
Speaker 4: many years ago, and Ron was already a well established
Speaker 4: journalist and author. We met and became friends, and then
Speaker 4: he and his family moved off to Vermont and we
Speaker 4: had lost touch over the years, and then I came
Speaker 4: across his book and did not know what had happened
Speaker 4: to his family and could immediately see that there was
Speaker 4: sort of the spine of film there and so that
Speaker 4: was the first impetus for doing this. Also, early in
Speaker 4: my career, i'd been a medical reporter, so I always
Speaker 4: say that I know just enough to be every doctor's nightmare.
Speaker 4: So that was something else that I brought to the table.
Speaker 4: And my own mother lived with borderline personality disorder, so
Speaker 4: like so many people who are in this space, I
Speaker 4: brought that lived experience to it. So it was kind
Speaker 4: of the perfect storm, if you will. And so that's
Speaker 4: where it began with Ron's family story and the kind
Speaker 4: of the sociological work behind it. But then as I
Speaker 4: dug in, I became really interested in the whole dynamic
Speaker 4: of family involvement, because mental illness is a full family disorder,
Speaker 4: as we often say, so that began to really interest me.
Speaker 4: And there's been the emerging of a family advocacy movement,
Speaker 4: which it took five years to make this film, and
Speaker 4: over that time, this family movement was really sort of
Speaker 4: gaining momentum and breaking through in many ways and leading
Speaker 4: to you said that nothing that things have only seemed
Speaker 4: to get worse, But in point of fact, there is
Speaker 4: a lot of movement to make things better. And so
Speaker 4: we tracked a lot of particularly in California, although the
Speaker 4: movement is across the country, but we did a lot
Speaker 4: of our attention was focused in California, both because we
Speaker 4: had a couple of personal stories that we were following
Speaker 4: in real time there, and also because this movement was
Speaker 4: in many ways that its greatest devolution to date there,
Speaker 4: and so I think I think we're so it was
Speaker 4: kind of a dual endeavor. I wanted to really put
Speaker 4: a very human face on the reality of serious mental illness.
Speaker 4: I think so many of us you mentioned walking out
Speaker 4: on seeing deranged people, you know, depending particularly in New York,
Speaker 4: if you're on the subways, on the.
Speaker 2: Streets, the image that we seems to be most common.
Speaker 2: Then again, associated I'm going to bring a lesson in
Speaker 2: and talk more about that it means interrupt but again
Speaker 2: that unfortunately that's the image that we.
Speaker 4: Have, but we need to look past that image, and
Speaker 4: we're going to get that. And I think making this
Speaker 4: film changed me and the way I see people, and
Speaker 4: I hope that, in point of fact, that we can
Speaker 4: try to do that for others as well. So I wanted,
Speaker 4: on the one hand, to humanize people and in their
Speaker 4: own voices and center them in their own stories, but
Speaker 4: also wanted to have alongside this intimacy and this very
Speaker 4: personal narrative something that was systemic, something that really looked
Speaker 4: at why are these systems so broken? How did we
Speaker 4: get to this point, and what is the way forward?
Speaker 4: Because I wanted I wanted to end on a note
Speaker 4: of hope. I didn't want to just end on a
Speaker 4: note of doom and gloom. So that, in a nutshell,
Speaker 4: was kind of what I was aiming at. That answers
Speaker 4: your question.
Speaker 2: It certainly does, and we're going to develop that as
Speaker 2: we go further. I want to talk and obviously some
Speaker 2: of the challenges associated with telling such an intimate and
Speaker 2: personal story, but I think it's a good time to
Speaker 2: bring in a listen. Now some of the things that
Speaker 2: we've covered in the names we mentioned, for example, the
Speaker 2: stigma that's often associated with mental illness, the image that
Speaker 2: again we were talking about that seems to be foremost
Speaker 2: in people's minds instead of the reality. So let's bring
Speaker 2: you in again. What is the definition of mental illness?
Speaker 2: You know, there's a depression, and everybody experiences depression, and
Speaker 2: I think people unders have to understand part of the
Speaker 2: human experience is is that okay? But that doesn't necessarily
Speaker 2: define it as mental illness. So in your world from
Speaker 2: great mental health, how would we define something as, especially
Speaker 2: something like when we're talking about severe mental illness?
Speaker 5: Sure, absolutely so mental illness.
Speaker 6: I mean, as you mentioned, it is a spectrum, right,
Speaker 6: So even folks that carry those diagnoses of schizophrenia, schizoepfective
Speaker 6: disorder up until your anxiety and your depression, which are
Speaker 6: much more sort of common or you know daily, Right,
Speaker 6: everybody's going to fall somewhere along the severity of those.
Speaker 6: So we have folks who are severely anxious, and we
Speaker 6: have folks who get by on a daily basis with mild, moderate,
Speaker 6: or no treatment whatsoever. The same goes for our folks
Speaker 6: with anything from dipolar disorder to schizophrenia. Right, everybody's in
Speaker 6: their own unique experiences and they're having their own their
Speaker 6: own reality in what they're experiencing considering their mental illness. Now,
Speaker 6: if you want to go buy the book diagnostically, you
Speaker 6: have to meet certain criteria to come eligible to carry
Speaker 6: this label that we call it, right, this diagnosis of
Speaker 6: any of those disorders that I mentioned before. But again,
Speaker 6: I really want to hammer in the point that there's
Speaker 6: such an array of experiences that this by and large,
Speaker 6: this this vision that we see of the individual on
Speaker 6: the street that's dangerous and really talking to themselves in
Speaker 6: the corner, right, that is the minority of individuals experiencing
Speaker 6: mental illness. There is so many people that you know
Speaker 6: in your personal life that may be also, you know,
Speaker 6: dealing with something that you have no idea about, and
Speaker 6: they may be receiving their own treatment or not for
Speaker 6: something that we would consider a mental illness.
Speaker 2: Okay, I mentioned the word stigma, the stigma stigmatizing of
Speaker 2: mental illness, and it's strange to me. First of all,
Speaker 2: the overall health care you know where teeth, eyes, and
Speaker 2: mental health is different than health Why that's that's topic
Speaker 2: we can get to a little bit later when we
Speaker 2: talk about the system. It's just odd to me, uh uh,
Speaker 2: dealing with it with the stigma and overcoming that that, uh,
Speaker 2: how why In other words, we wouldn't necessarily make if
Speaker 2: you have kidney disease or heart disease, we've seen we
Speaker 2: tend to look at it with more feet in those situations,
Speaker 2: and yet lack when someone is really struggling beyond their controlers.
Speaker 2: And I want people to say, you know, I think
Speaker 2: people often associate it's their fault. They want to be
Speaker 2: that way, and I think that's an important distinction to
Speaker 2: make that they need help, and we wouldn't make We
Speaker 2: don't make fun of other people that make help, that
Speaker 2: need help, forgive me, Yet we stigmatize people from from
Speaker 2: a mental standpoint, if they seek out help, if they
Speaker 2: need help, both all of us can address that. Why
Speaker 2: don't you start with us?
Speaker 5: Yeah?
Speaker 6: No, absolutely, I mean I think by and large, you know, Frank,
Speaker 6: just to mention, I don't think there's any one of
Speaker 6: us that would willingly ask to be diagnosed with schizophrenia
Speaker 6: or experience the signs and symptoms that come with bipolar disorder.
Speaker 5: Right.
Speaker 6: So, one of those things that I hear all the
Speaker 6: time is why can't they just fix themselves or you know,
Speaker 6: just do this and they'll feel better. It's just not
Speaker 6: as simple of that, and we know that those of
Speaker 6: us in the field, we know that there's just an
Speaker 6: incredible array of experiences and different treatments and experiences that
Speaker 6: can help individuals. But I I think the stigma goes
Speaker 6: a really long way back. Not to get too clinical here,
Speaker 6: but we can go back to the witching ages where
Speaker 6: women with hysterica hysteria excuse me, we're looked at with
Speaker 6: with you know, really critical eyes and we're locked up
Speaker 6: and you know, maybe even burned at the stake. These
Speaker 6: are medical diagnoses. These are issues with brain chemistry. These
Speaker 6: are chemistry in our body going on that are affecting
Speaker 6: individuals in their day to day lifestyles, and we just
Speaker 6: continue to look at it as something completely separate from
Speaker 6: like we would you know, mentioned diabetes or kidney disease.
Speaker 6: Like you said, I do think a large part of
Speaker 6: that also plays into the media or portrayal that we
Speaker 6: have shown individuals with mental illness and how we have
Speaker 6: shown the communities and society what that looks like, at
Speaker 6: least through this particular lens. But we really are working
Speaker 6: to move that needle, as Gail was saying earlier, to
Speaker 6: really you know, make the progress look at whole person care.
Speaker 6: If somebody's experiencing mental illness, what are the chances that
Speaker 6: we can treat it very similarly or look at it
Speaker 6: through the same holistic lens as we would as somebody
Speaker 6: with a medical issue.
Speaker 2: And you mentioned the lens of bring Viera in a
Speaker 2: little bit and see what role organizations like Rivertown play
Speaker 2: in disseminating that information. But I also want to get
Speaker 2: Gail back in here too. As a filmmaker, how did
Speaker 2: you deal with with with that as an issue, what
Speaker 2: Elyssa was just talking about, and as we met the stigma,
Speaker 2: the need to find health. Where as a filmmaker, how
Speaker 2: did you deal with that?
Speaker 4: One thing I'd say, because that just circles back to
Speaker 4: something you mentioned before. Mental health care is healthcare, and
Speaker 4: I think we need to make sure that people understand
Speaker 4: that because a lot of times not to be a
Speaker 4: total policy geek, but you know, there is not equity,
Speaker 4: there's not parody people. And I think calling it behavioral
Speaker 4: health sometimes can be counterproductive because it sort of reinforces
Speaker 4: that notion that it's willful and that people have the
Speaker 4: power to just you know, vanquish their own disorder, and
Speaker 4: you know, and I think that a lot of the stigma,
Speaker 4: as Alyssa was just saying, goes back centuries and is
Speaker 4: based in fear in large part, and what people fear
Speaker 4: and they don't understand, they tend to look away from.
Speaker 4: They'd rather ignore it. The title no One Cares About
Speaker 4: Crazy People, as we explained in the first minute of
Speaker 4: the film, is a quote from a politician who was
Speaker 4: addressing a scandalous situation in his own community and basically
Speaker 4: was saying to the boss, who was worried about electoral kickback,
Speaker 4: don't worry about it, because no one cares about crazy people.
Speaker 4: And so our mission was both to show that a
Speaker 4: lot of people do care, in point of fact, that
Speaker 4: that's not correct to say no one cares. A lot
Speaker 4: of people do care, and that we all can care understand.
Speaker 4: Care begins with understanding. Changing the system begins with understanding.
Speaker 4: And so my mission was again to try to get
Speaker 4: as much access as I could and to show a
Speaker 4: small series of compelling, intimate stories where you felt like
Speaker 4: you got to know people who are living, who are
Speaker 4: struggling with these disorders that they didn't ask for, and
Speaker 4: to see them in their full humanity, so that your
Speaker 4: empathy was aroused instead of judgment or derision or any
Speaker 4: of the other patapley of reactions that one might have.
Speaker 4: And so that's what we did. We followed a small
Speaker 4: sample of individuals and families around the country over several
Speaker 4: years as their stories were unfolding, not knowing where that
Speaker 4: was going to go in each case. And much of
Speaker 4: Ron Power's family story is in the past, but that's
Speaker 4: also told in the film. And we spent a lot
Speaker 4: of time and people said, was that uncomfortable? Did you
Speaker 4: encounter hostility?
Speaker 3: No?
Speaker 4: It wasn't uncomfortable. It was intense, it was powerful. It
Speaker 4: was moving for me too, But I felt honored and privileged.
Speaker 4: First of all, the people wanted to tell their stories,
Speaker 4: and you know, I think most of us want to
Speaker 4: be seen, we want to be heard, we want the
Speaker 4: chance to be evaluated on our own terms, and so
Speaker 4: I was gratified that people wanted to do that, and
Speaker 4: I was consistently blown away by these family members who
Speaker 4: and our film really does look at the most severe
Speaker 4: end of the spectrum, and as Alyssa said, there's a
Speaker 4: whole spectrum, and we're all on that spectrum somewhere. But
Speaker 4: we were really looking at the most severe end of it,
Speaker 4: because those people who often get short shrift. I think,
Speaker 4: you know, COVID brought mental health struggles to people's awareness,
Speaker 4: perhaps as nothing before, but for people with the most
Speaker 4: severe disorders, they were kind of left out of the
Speaker 4: mix before COVID, and to a large degree they still are.
Speaker 4: So but these families don't give up, and that just
Speaker 4: consistently blew me away. I don't know if I could
Speaker 4: do what they do. Their love, their dedication, their grit
Speaker 4: is just extraordinary, and so often they get blamed along
Speaker 4: with the person who has the disorder. You'll consistently hear
Speaker 4: where was the family, Why didn't they take this person?
Speaker 4: Why didn't they take care of this? And then you
Speaker 4: find out that a point of fact, they've been trying,
Speaker 4: in many cases for years to do everything they can,
Speaker 4: and the system has literally shut them out at many points. So,
Speaker 4: you know, it was that making the film, it grew tentacles.
Speaker 4: I never originally intended it for to have, but they
Speaker 4: ended up feeling necessary if we were going to kind
Speaker 4: of give a sort of a well rounded view of
Speaker 4: where we are, how we got there, where can we go?
Speaker 2: Of course, that brings up a lot more questions and
Speaker 2: hopefully we'll get to this is great that we can
Speaker 2: do a few hours, Gus, I can tell already I
Speaker 2: want to bring Vera Arnow from Rivertown Film and talk
Speaker 2: a little bit about First of all, give us a
Speaker 2: little bit of an overview of Rivertown, what you guys
Speaker 2: are about. Then from there, why films like this fit
Speaker 2: with it? And forgive me a raise on detra if
Speaker 2: you will put that together for us, If you would
Speaker 2: first a little bit about Rivertown, and then why you
Speaker 2: choose films like this and why you chose this particular
Speaker 2: film for show.
Speaker 3: Sure, thank you. Rivertown Film is an arts nonprofit based
Speaker 3: here in Rockland County. This year we're entering our twenty
Speaker 3: fifth year of existence, which is quite an accomplishment for
Speaker 3: a small group like hours. And we got started two
Speaker 3: thousand and one with the mission of celebrating the art
Speaker 3: of motion pictures. We show about two screenings a month,
Speaker 3: about twenty films a year, and they're independent, foreign or
Speaker 3: documentary films, basically things you won't see at the multiplex.
Speaker 3: And in each program now is a company. Each screening
Speaker 3: is accompanied by some kind of Q and a after
Speaker 3: the film to deepen the experience for the viewer, and
Speaker 3: it's either often the filmmaker. We bring a whole array
Speaker 3: of famous, not so famous, local, not so local filmmakers
Speaker 3: into our community, and if that's not possible, we reach
Speaker 3: out to people with an expertise in the subject matter
Speaker 3: or the country where the film is from, or just
Speaker 3: something too. As I said, deep in the experience of
Speaker 3: the film.
Speaker 2: So we have a.
Speaker 3: Curious audience and audience that's curious about the world and
Speaker 3: about issues issues, important issues like this one of the
Speaker 3: issues of severe mental illness that lives on our streets,
Speaker 3: in our lives, and this is a great opportunity to
Speaker 3: have people come in share an experience of watching the film,
Speaker 3: have a common base of knowledge. And then we're so
Speaker 3: grateful to Alissa and Gale for being there because it
Speaker 3: inevitably prompts questions both about the filmmaking process because people
Speaker 3: are interested in the art and people love documentaries, and
Speaker 3: also about mental illness, about their personal experience or something
Speaker 3: that's happening here, or policy or all kinds of things.
Speaker 3: That's why we're excited to be showing this film. It
Speaker 3: came to our attention through I think someone who knows, Gail,
Speaker 3: and we have a committee, a programming a committee that
Speaker 3: looks at different projects and makes a schedule of different things,
Speaker 3: so it's not always the same same thing we're watching,
Speaker 3: and we decided it would be great to go forward
Speaker 3: with us, so we're pleased to be showing it at
Speaker 3: the NAIAC Center on January twenty eighth. I got that right,
Speaker 3: twenty fifth, Sorry, twenty eight.
Speaker 2: Yes, we have more. Yes, we're taking on Wednesday the
Speaker 2: twenty first, And I always have to give the date
Speaker 2: because our shows are archived and if people are watching
Speaker 2: it's Wednesday the twentieth. Then we'll talk about that in
Speaker 2: more detail and how people can get tickets and all
Speaker 2: that stuff. We'll have time for that after the break.
Speaker 2: But you know, obviously, and obviously Gail, you've seen the film. Well,
Speaker 2: you guys have seen the film. I've watched some clip,
Speaker 2: but I haven't seen the entire film. I'd like to
Speaker 2: know how is it affected you, both personally and professionally?
Speaker 2: And Lissa, why don't we start with you and do
Speaker 2: a little roundtable. How did it affect you? Is both
Speaker 2: in both ways to change you at all? Professionally and
Speaker 2: how so personally? After Sue.
Speaker 5: I mean, I think I live this.
Speaker 6: I work this every day, right, coming from the mental
Speaker 6: health sector, so I hear these stories. You have no
Speaker 6: idea how dreaming and you know profound it can be
Speaker 6: to sit with these people in front of you and
Speaker 6: have them share their stories, have them share their experiences.
Speaker 6: I'm sure Gail will speak about that experience just creating
Speaker 6: this film. So I don't know, you know, Unfortunately, I
Speaker 6: wasn't surprised or shocked by.
Speaker 5: Anything that I saw in the film, right, But I
Speaker 5: come from this world.
Speaker 6: I think there's so many people out there that would
Speaker 6: be very surprised and shocked by the content of this film.
Speaker 6: And that's I think why we're really trying to put
Speaker 6: it out there. And I say we like I was
Speaker 6: involved in the production, but I'm sure that was part
Speaker 6: of the process for Gail, right, So I don't know,
Speaker 6: you know, it just it really honed in on the
Speaker 6: work that I do every day, the importance of portraying
Speaker 6: these individuals with these experiences in a really accurate, really
Speaker 6: empathetic way. As we were kind of saying before, Personally,
Speaker 6: I have my own experiences with family members and friends
Speaker 6: who have their own experiences. I think at this point
Speaker 6: it would be fair to say you're not going to
Speaker 6: meet anybody who's not touched by someone with a mental
Speaker 6: disorder in their lives. And so I think just seeing
Speaker 6: the profound creation of their stories in this film just
Speaker 6: really bringing it to light the importance of sort of
Speaker 6: focusing on this population and how can we change what
Speaker 6: we're doing and do better for those individuals.
Speaker 2: I want to go to Vera next Gale. I'm going
Speaker 2: to let you finish up. But I think you also
Speaker 2: have a very unique perspective, as you're not a healthcare
Speaker 2: professional like Welyssa. You are a filmmaker, but you didn't
Speaker 2: make this film, this particular film, so I think you
Speaker 2: might have a unique perspective. How did what did you
Speaker 2: change or change your mind if you will, both pet
Speaker 2: professional and personally in what way?
Speaker 3: Well, I think it was an unusually deep opportunity to
Speaker 3: live life a little bit with the families that were
Speaker 3: coping with the mental illness. So I would say it
Speaker 3: deepened my understanding of that, and I expect it will
Speaker 3: do that for a lot of people. And it made
Speaker 3: me curious about the solutions and the resources here in
Speaker 3: Rockland and around the country. It made me want to
Speaker 3: know more about that. So this is a perfect forum
Speaker 3: to have some of those questions answered. And it seems
Speaker 3: very timely.
Speaker 2: Certainly, Kail, you obviously spent five years, at least five
Speaker 2: years of your life intimately involved with this over the
Speaker 2: course of that time, and you've mentioned you've hinted at it.
Speaker 2: It gives a little more detail. How did it really
Speaker 2: change you?
Speaker 4: Well, I always, I mean, I think to do this
Speaker 4: work you have to be pretty obsessive, compulsive.
Speaker 2: So I hear you like podcasting, but I was with
Speaker 2: DBS two as well. We'll talk about that later, please.
Speaker 4: So you know, you've become completely immersed, and I've had
Speaker 4: several people ask me was it overwhelming at times? Was
Speaker 4: it so upsetting? How did you cope with that? And
Speaker 4: I think in some ways it's not unlike I mean,
Speaker 4: Alissa probably could speak to this too. It's not unlike
Speaker 4: being a medical professional where it's not that you leave
Speaker 4: your feelings at the door, but some part of you
Speaker 4: goes into a zone, into a mode where you can't
Speaker 4: be effective if you can't do the work. So I
Speaker 4: think that Gene, if you will, which I've been doing
Speaker 4: this for a long time, kind of took over. But
Speaker 4: there certainly were moments and my wonderful film editor Juvia
Speaker 4: knows Dina Pataki and Dina will be at the screening
Speaker 4: and also in the present for the audience talk back afterwards.
Speaker 4: And there were times where we were in the edit room,
Speaker 4: which we were for, you know, months, at a stretch,
Speaker 4: where we would watch some scene that I chot and
Speaker 4: I've done the interview that we pops had watched dozens
Speaker 4: of times. But it would suddenly it would get to
Speaker 4: me in a certain way, and I would become overwhelmed
Speaker 4: with emotion. And I never want to lose that, you know,
Speaker 4: just as I think as a medical professional or a
Speaker 4: social work professional or any kind of clinician, you don't
Speaker 4: want to lose that human connection to the subject. So
Speaker 4: I don't know that it. I think it changed my awareness.
Speaker 4: I think certainly my approach and my grasp of policy
Speaker 4: solutions evolved, and without getting too wonky and down in
Speaker 4: the weeds. You know, I'm a left leaning progressive and
Speaker 4: if you had asked me at the beginning of this
Speaker 4: process if I thought there was ever a role for
Speaker 4: involuntary care, I probably would have said no. Right, I
Speaker 4: was a card carry member of the ACLU. I'd worked
Speaker 4: on a whole documentary series years ago about people living
Speaker 4: with all kinds of disabilities. But in point of fact,
Speaker 4: I think that we need a much more nuanced kind
Speaker 4: of conversation because sometimes there are people and it's a
Speaker 4: feature of the illness. There is this unpronounceable word derived
Speaker 4: from the Greek called anasygnosia, and it literally translates as
Speaker 4: lack of insight. And for a small percentage it's not
Speaker 4: a lot of people, but for a small percentage people
Speaker 4: who live with disorders like schizophrenia, a feature of their
Speaker 4: disease is that they don't know they have it. It's
Speaker 4: not denial, it's not a refusal to acknowledge something. It's
Speaker 4: literally a feature of the disease that they don't know
Speaker 4: that they have an illness. And why would you go
Speaker 4: into treatment if for something that you don't know that
Speaker 4: you have, especially when the treatment is not a free ride.
Speaker 4: These meds have side effects. Treatment can be traumatizing, and
Speaker 4: so there are times I think when it is not
Speaker 4: humane to let someone remain untreated. If you know, as
Speaker 4: one of the mother advocates in the films, that what
Speaker 4: is civil or right about leaving someone to starve because
Speaker 4: their voices are telling them that they can't eat, or
Speaker 4: to sleep in their own feces on the street, or
Speaker 4: to be locked in solitary confinement because they've been arrested
Speaker 4: for some crime they didn't even understand that they were committed.
Speaker 4: So maybe there are times when we need just like
Speaker 4: these illnesses exist on a spectrum, I think treatment needs
Speaker 4: to exist on a spectrum. So my understanding about all
Speaker 4: that absolutely did evolve over the course of making this film,
Speaker 4: and I don't think I fully appreciated until way late
Speaker 4: in the process that that was in some ways controversial,
Speaker 4: and we ended up embracing that controversy and taking it
Speaker 4: on and basically hoping that the film does argue for
Speaker 4: a more nuanced kind of conversation and understanding that one
Speaker 4: size doesn't fit all and that comes and so that's
Speaker 4: the way it changed me.
Speaker 2: I want to bring in Alyssa here in a minute,
Speaker 2: but I also want to bring out because it's such
Speaker 2: an important point. We had the mayor of Nayak, Joe
Speaker 2: rand was on a few weeks ago, and that was
Speaker 2: a big issue here, And you mentioned Nyak is a
Speaker 2: left leaning, progressive town. Let's admit it, let's call it
Speaker 2: for what it is. And xilis here because I have
Speaker 2: to agree with that. And there was this huge controversy
Speaker 2: because there is an issue with people on the street here,
Speaker 2: most of them seem to have some type of mental issues,
Speaker 2: but it's associated with homeliness. So benches were removed in
Speaker 2: an effort to try to get people to take advantage
Speaker 2: of the warming centers that are provided. So it became
Speaker 2: and again it's a conversation. We can get to another
Speaker 2: hour for another day. But I hear you so completely
Speaker 2: that again, the spectrum of behavior needs a spectrum of
Speaker 2: treatment to deal with it. It's kind of like not
Speaker 2: one size fits all. And maybe that's a good time
Speaker 2: to bring Alyssa in. Would you comment towards that. I
Speaker 2: think it's all relative.
Speaker 6: Absolutely, I can't help but think of doctor Xavier Amateur's book,
Speaker 6: I'm not Sick.
Speaker 5: I don't need help.
Speaker 6: When we talk about antasignosia and the sort of inability
Speaker 6: to really understand what their own personal experiences are, it
Speaker 6: is a very real experience for some individuals. There's nothing
Speaker 6: wrong with me, you are perceiving is just me being me, right,
Speaker 6: and so that ability to understand or seek help, or
Speaker 6: be willingness.
Speaker 5: To go seek help. Why would I seek help?
Speaker 6: There's nothing wrong with me, right, And so I think
Speaker 6: we've swung the pendulum.
Speaker 5: Thank goodness.
Speaker 6: We are so far from the days of when we
Speaker 6: would just institutionalize our individuals at the first drop of
Speaker 6: a sign or a symptom of something going on with them.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 5: That was the dark dark ages and mental health care.
Speaker 6: But I think there's so much to be said for
Speaker 6: what Gail is saying that there is no nice neat.
Speaker 5: Box that these individuals fall into as well, and.
Speaker 6: There's times when individuals we need to look at the
Speaker 6: safety for everyone involved, most primarily the individual who's experiencing
Speaker 6: some of those issues that we talk about that we
Speaker 6: see on the streets of New York City, that we
Speaker 6: see in our town in Niak and figure out what's
Speaker 6: the best plan of action. Person centered care is so
Speaker 6: so incredibly important. We want to take the individual into
Speaker 6: account first and foremost. But there are times when we
Speaker 6: are all not making the best decisions for ourselves, and
Speaker 6: what do we do to approach that situation as well?
Speaker 4: And how do we get somebody to a point of
Speaker 4: recovery where they can voluntarily participate and come to understand
Speaker 4: and have insight. And that is possible. I'm sure Elissa
Speaker 4: sees it all the time.
Speaker 5: Absolutely, recovery is not only possible, it's expected.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 2: I was just going to ask you that, Yeah, it
Speaker 2: is recovery possible. Sometimes these things seem like there's no
Speaker 2: and these people are so seriously sick and I want
Speaker 2: to use that term, they're sick in not a derogatory sense.
Speaker 2: But so recovery is possible with the right treatment, etc.
Speaker 5: Absolutely, and treatment. Again, there is no one.
Speaker 6: Size fits all, right, So lots of people I constantly hear,
Speaker 6: why won't they just take their medications and fix it?
Speaker 5: Right, it's happened.
Speaker 6: There's this expectation there's some magic pill out there that's
Speaker 6: just going to up and fix all of the issues
Speaker 6: that you're experiencing.
Speaker 5: And that's not the case either.
Speaker 6: There's so many supports and services and different treatment modalities
Speaker 6: that come into play, and what worked for Joe may
Speaker 6: not work for Sally. And so we need to be creative,
Speaker 6: we need to be centered, unique in what we're doing
Speaker 6: with that individual. Look at them as an individual rather
Speaker 6: than a diagnosis or you know, a box that they're
Speaker 6: fitting into.
Speaker 2: Bill. What message ultimately do you hope that the audience
Speaker 2: takes home with them from your film.
Speaker 4: Well, part of what it is is what Alyssa just said,
Speaker 4: Actually that you know that there are this diagnosis encompasses
Speaker 4: a range of degrees and symptoms, and so do the
Speaker 4: treatment options need to I want them to see that
Speaker 4: people who live with mental illness, as one of the
Speaker 4: family members says in the film, are people they often
Speaker 4: had do have families who care about them, that although
Speaker 4: the suffering is very real, the solutions exist and if
Speaker 4: we as a society can find the will as we
Speaker 4: have you know, it's movements have existed for aids for
Speaker 4: breast cancer. I mean, there have been any number of
Speaker 4: other disorders autism that have broken through in the public
Speaker 4: consciousness and where real change has taken place. And I
Speaker 4: think I think we are potentially at a tipping point
Speaker 4: when it comes to mental illness. I mean, despite the
Speaker 4: stigmatizing which we hear even from the White House on down,
Speaker 4: I think the reality is that that people are more
Speaker 4: understanding young people. I also think that's something else that
Speaker 4: I think I hope people take away is that I
Speaker 4: think young people are much more open about these disorders,
Speaker 4: don't embrace that kind of stigma. And I think that
Speaker 4: they are our hope looking forward and may better be
Speaker 4: right because they are the future. But I think that
Speaker 4: you know there there is another other paths and other
Speaker 4: ways to go, and I don't you know, And recovery
Speaker 4: is not the same as cure. I think for people
Speaker 4: who live with the most serious illnesses, they have to
Speaker 4: learn to manage these illnesses. But people live with diabetes,
Speaker 4: people nowadays live.
Speaker 2: With answer, they live with heart.
Speaker 4: Disease, and so can people live full and meaningful lives
Speaker 4: with mental illness. And what a waste of humanity not
Speaker 4: to embrace everything it takes to make that possible. So
Speaker 4: I guess that's what I hope people walk away with
Speaker 4: is just a greater understanding of what they see every
Speaker 4: day in the world around them in the news reports,
Speaker 4: and that they don't look away.
Speaker 2: And we're going to talk about the future after the break,
Speaker 2: But one more question point to be made there. You know,
Speaker 2: what I see here and something that I'm impressed with
Speaker 2: is kind of a symbiotic relationship that has been created
Speaker 2: between yourself, your organization. Filmmaker Gail and Alyssa's organization and
Speaker 2: talk a little bit about how is a nonprofit. It's
Speaker 2: important to create those kinds of synergies where you together
Speaker 2: you can create a stronger message. Dress that a little
Speaker 2: bit if you.
Speaker 3: Would, sure, thank you. This is a great conversation. I'm
Speaker 3: learning things that I hope come up in our conversation
Speaker 3: at the next center when we show the complete film.
Speaker 3: And again, that's one of the wonderful things about Rivertown
Speaker 3: is that it gives us this opportunity that gives everyone
Speaker 3: in the room this kind of opportunity. And I have
Speaker 3: to say, you know, one reason that we always partner
Speaker 3: with community organizations for every screening is a very practical
Speaker 3: nuts and bolts. It brings more people into the room
Speaker 3: because we have greater mental health helping us publicize this event.
Speaker 3: Also should mention that Nammy of Rockland is partnering to
Speaker 3: help spread the word about about the event and has partnered,
Speaker 3: I understand many times with Gail about the showings of
Speaker 3: this film or other chapters of NAMI. So it helps
Speaker 3: us expand our audience and hopefully people who come to
Speaker 3: see this film will know learn about us and come
Speaker 3: back to see other films. Or be curious, become members,
Speaker 3: and it just builds community connections the people in the room,
Speaker 3: and that's a big part of what Rivertown. What's special
Speaker 3: about Rivertown. We're not just showing movies. Everybody can watch
Speaker 3: them at home. So many times, it's really much more
Speaker 3: than that. And we find out so many times that
Speaker 3: our neighbors who might live across the street from us,
Speaker 3: we didn't know they have an expertise, they're an artist,
Speaker 3: they're living with its kind of issue. It's just amazing
Speaker 3: what you find out at a Rivertown screen, not just
Speaker 3: from the film.
Speaker 2: Guys are gonna take a little break. Don't go anywhere.
Speaker 2: You guys don't go I have you capped it for now,
Speaker 2: but certainly our listeners don't go anywhere yet. A wonderful conversation.
Speaker 2: I want to talk a little bit more about the film.
Speaker 2: We wanna talk a little bit more about the future. Okay.
Speaker 2: Special guests from Greater Mental Health is Alissa Schmidt from Rivertown.
Speaker 2: Film is Via Arno and the creator of the film
Speaker 2: No One Cares About Crazy People. The topic of our
Speaker 2: conversation today is Gail Friedman wing back with all three
Speaker 2: of our ladies and just a few moments, this is
Speaker 2: Being Frank. I'm your host, Frank Lebono will be back
Speaker 2: with more intelligent conversation right after these brief commercial messages.
Speaker 2: Please don't go anywhere. This is great.
Speaker 3: This is Hudson River Radio dot com.
Speaker 5: Hudson River Radio dot.
Speaker 1: Com, Hudson Riverradio dot com.
Speaker 5: This is Hudsonriverradio dot com.
Speaker 2: Welcome back to Being Frank, the Intelligent Conversation podcast. Thanks
Speaker 2: for sticking with us. I'm your hosts Frank Ubono and
Speaker 2: as always our engineer as the mailman, mister Neil Richter.
Speaker 2: We bring our audience a fresh topic every week and
Speaker 2: we stream from Hudson River Radio, located and beautiful and
Speaker 2: historic Stony Point, New York. But remember, you can catch
Speaker 2: Being Frank anywhere you get your favorite podcasts like Apple, Spotify,
Speaker 2: iHeartRadio and all the others. And because every Being Frank
Speaker 2: is archived, you can listen to any of our programs
Speaker 2: anytime you like. You can find a link to Being
Speaker 2: Frank on the Hudson River Radio Facebook page or at
Speaker 2: our website Hudsonriverradio dot com. Just click and you're there.
Speaker 2: We're back with our very special program. We're discussing the
Speaker 2: film No One Cares About Crazy People in particular and
Speaker 2: mental health in general, with the creator of the film, producer, director,
Speaker 2: writer Gail Friedman, a representative from the Greater Mental Health
Speaker 2: of New York Elissa Schmidt, and from Rivertown Film hosts
Speaker 2: and sponsors of the program, Vera, Aaron Old ladies, welcome back.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much. We had a wonderful first half
Speaker 2: of our program and lots more to talk about, not
Speaker 2: too much time, so let's get back into it, and
Speaker 2: again we can go around the table. Gail, why don't
Speaker 2: we start with you? What questions should people be asking
Speaker 2: after seeing this film?
Speaker 4: Well, that's interesting. I mean I would say, far be
Speaker 4: it from me to tell people what to think, and
Speaker 4: I most often prefer to let my film speak for itself.
Speaker 4: But I hope that people will will ask what's going
Speaker 4: on in my community, you know, without getting too prescriptive,
Speaker 4: what can I do to make a difference? You know,
Speaker 4: that may be something really small, or it might be
Speaker 4: something pretty major. But you know, I think one thing
Speaker 4: that I realized, and I think Alyssa mentioned this earlier
Speaker 4: in the show, is that there aren't six degrees of separation.
Speaker 4: There are probably zero degrees of separation. And I think
Speaker 4: every one of us, whether it's a relative, a neighbor,
Speaker 4: a coworker, or somebody who went to school with, we
Speaker 4: had someone in our life who is living with a
Speaker 4: mental health struggle. And I hope that people can walk
Speaker 4: away more curious about understanding just this fundamental and incredibly
Speaker 4: prevalent aspect of human existence and just want to understand
Speaker 4: it more. I mean, you know, the reality is on.
Speaker 4: I didn't want this film to be medicine. I wanted
Speaker 4: people to feel like they were watching a film, not
Speaker 4: you know, getting a teachy preacher.
Speaker 2: It's a challenge, yes, I hear it, who.
Speaker 4: Lesson, which is why it was so important to have
Speaker 4: it be very intimate and it's very intense.
Speaker 2: I mean, you don't want to be a lecture. It's
Speaker 2: not election exactly.
Speaker 4: I wanted to feel like you were sort of in
Speaker 4: there and walk away wanting to know more. If people
Speaker 4: walk away with questions and don't feel like they've had
Speaker 4: every piece of information available in the universe thrown at them,
Speaker 4: then I'm happy. If people walk away wanting to know more,
Speaker 4: whatever their questions might be. You know, what are the
Speaker 4: best kinds of treatments available, what are the side effects
Speaker 4: of medications, what kind of research is being done, what
Speaker 4: is my own community making available? Whatever occurs to them,
Speaker 4: then then I'm happy if they just walk out still
Speaker 4: thinking about this and talking about it.
Speaker 2: Well, it's a perfect segue to you and your your
Speaker 2: facil your expertise. It's perfect segue.
Speaker 5: Absolutely.
Speaker 6: I mean my gut reaction is if I would love
Speaker 6: viewers to come out with how can I help?
Speaker 5: And who can I help?
Speaker 2: Right?
Speaker 6: But I think that's probably very Pollyanna of me, and
Speaker 6: it's obviously very prescriptive of the work that I do
Speaker 6: every day. I think a film like this should spur
Speaker 6: and I hope it would spur some self reflection for
Speaker 6: the viewers as well. Right, Who have I interacted with
Speaker 6: that maybe I wasn't the kindest too.
Speaker 5: Are there any things that I am doing?
Speaker 6: Are there any biases that I have, whether consciously or unconsciously,
Speaker 6: that are furthering some of the stigma issues that we're
Speaker 6: seeing that are furthering some of the negative experiences that
Speaker 6: these folks who have these mental health conditions are experiencing.
Speaker 6: So I think something as profound as a film like this,
Speaker 6: if all it does is make you think about yourself
Speaker 6: for a couple of minutes.
Speaker 5: I think it's a hit.
Speaker 2: Via your thoughts.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's great, Well, I do think of course all
Speaker 3: those things. But I think I hope that it spurs
Speaker 3: people who are watching it to think more about the
Speaker 3: resources in their community and find out what is available.
Speaker 3: As everyone is saying we all know people who struggle
Speaker 3: with mental health issues, I think we're not all aware
Speaker 3: about what can be done, including just basic things about
Speaker 3: what kind of care is available and if it's not,
Speaker 3: why not, and of course being being kind to people
Speaker 3: we know. But that's not always enough. You know that
Speaker 3: more needs to be done. So it's really I think
Speaker 3: it's really helpful to spread the word about what can
Speaker 3: be done. I don't think people know enough about UH
Speaker 3: and speaking for myself about what is really available.
Speaker 2: Again, if we'll bounce it back to a listen, can
Speaker 2: put you back on the spot less.
Speaker 5: When you want a professionals is where I find it?
Speaker 2: Again might seem like an obvious question, but how do
Speaker 2: we recognize that someone really again, the difference between while
Speaker 2: they're a little depressed today and someone who's really struggling mentally?
Speaker 2: Are there signs to look for, and once we see them,
Speaker 2: what do we do?
Speaker 6: Of course, absolutely so, first and foremost, I really think
Speaker 6: that the most important thing to do is ask questions
Speaker 6: and check in on your loved ones, just at face value. Right,
Speaker 6: we're in a stage post COVID where there's a lot
Speaker 6: of isolation. People are more on social media than they
Speaker 6: are gathering with their friends and loved ones, right, So
Speaker 6: checking in with the folks that are close to you
Speaker 6: is so important because you'll notice if somebody's acting a
Speaker 6: little differently. Right, Hopefully you will feel the change in passion,
Speaker 6: the change and experience when you're sitting with somebody who's
Speaker 6: usually very lively and now is maybe on the other
Speaker 6: end of that spectrum being very quiet, very into themselves.
Speaker 5: You know.
Speaker 6: Again, we don't want to talk about putting folks into
Speaker 6: a box. Everybody experiences changes in their mental health in
Speaker 6: different ways. But some very typical issues to be concerned about.
Speaker 6: Folks who are isolating from groups of friends and family
Speaker 6: when they are typically very involved and very social individuals
Speaker 6: who are starting to talk about hopelessness, helplessness, some of
Speaker 6: that concerning language where we might be starting to get
Speaker 6: into a little bit of a danger zone. Hearing individuals
Speaker 6: talk about giving away some of their prized possessions, or
Speaker 6: taking care of their pets or things of that nature.
Speaker 6: These are all things that as a clinician, my hat
Speaker 6: is starting to go. You know, we're getting into some
Speaker 6: concerning behavior here, but I think really it's just looking
Speaker 6: for minor departures. We know the individuals in our lives,
Speaker 6: We love the individuals in our lives. If we're noticing changes,
Speaker 6: please don't be afraid to ask those people about it.
Speaker 6: Everybody is just looking for a safe space to talk
Speaker 6: about it. The more we ignore the problem, the more
Speaker 6: we stigmatize the problem, and the more we make it
Speaker 6: so that folks who are experiencing some of these mental
Speaker 6: health challenges feel like they can only stay to themselves
Speaker 6: about it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think I heard from you a certain level
Speaker 2: of optimism. I painted a well kind of a negative picture,
Speaker 2: and you said it not necessarily true. There's work to
Speaker 2: be done, but you believe there are positive signs moving forward.
Speaker 2: Talk a little to that.
Speaker 6: Absolutely, we are seeing an increase in mental health care
Speaker 6: utilization in the last couple of weeks.
Speaker 2: Unil lis'ten finish it, and we'll get to Gail to
Speaker 2: please go ahead.
Speaker 5: I'm sorry now, absolutely.
Speaker 2: Just not an issue, not a problem at all. Go
Speaker 2: ahead and listen, then, Gail, you finish up.
Speaker 6: Yeah, so we're seeing an increase in service utilization. By
Speaker 6: no means do I believe at my core that more
Speaker 6: folks are experiencing issues with their mental health. I think
Speaker 6: we have just increasingly normalized the ability for folks to
Speaker 6: reach out for help.
Speaker 5: That to me is a positive, not a negative.
Speaker 6: The more folks who are utilizing these resources, asking questions,
Speaker 6: seeking out supports for themselves and their loved ones, it's
Speaker 6: nothing but a positive. Because the more folks that we
Speaker 6: can expose to treatment, to supports and services, the more
Speaker 6: people we can't help in their own experiences along the way.
Speaker 2: Okay, Gail, pick it up from there, same question. You
Speaker 2: seem to be optimistic more than pessific.
Speaker 7: I'm hopeful, optimistic a strong work, but I am I am.
Speaker 7: I'm hopeful by the fact that there is more and
Speaker 7: more advocacy, more and more determination to make change, that
Speaker 7: more and more legislators.
Speaker 4: Are waking up. At least on the state and local level.
Speaker 4: We could use more of that. On the federal level.
Speaker 4: The medicaid cuts that we've had have been devastating. So
Speaker 4: that's a reason not to be hopeful, because an awful
Speaker 4: lot of mental health care is paid for with Medicaid dollars.
Speaker 4: But I think that there is a lot of movement
Speaker 4: and a lot of advocacy, and as I say, I
Speaker 4: think we're potentially, if we can sustain it, at a
Speaker 4: kind of a tipping point. And I'm also hopeful, which
Speaker 4: this sounds self serving in a way, but you know,
Speaker 4: I've been doing this director's tour since the fall, and
Speaker 4: we've been I don't know, about a dozen places so far,
Speaker 4: all around the country, and almost every time it's a
Speaker 4: full house. And I take that as a very hopeful
Speaker 4: sign that people are interested and want to see this
Speaker 4: and want to know more. And partly it's a kind
Speaker 4: of perhaps a sensationalistic of wiistic fascination watching someone from
Speaker 4: a safe remove in psychosis has its own kind of fascination.
Speaker 4: But more than that, I think it comes from a
Speaker 4: place of caring and wanting to understand. And the conversations
Speaker 4: that take place after the screenings, the comments and the
Speaker 4: questions that come up give me a lot of hope
Speaker 4: because people do care. It's not that no one cares.
Speaker 4: Maybe there are some that do not care, but I
Speaker 4: think I think we're to point where more and more
Speaker 4: people are sitting up and paying attention. And like I said,
Speaker 4: I think change, Change can happen, change does happen, and
Speaker 4: I think that begins with understanding. So that makes me hopeful.
Speaker 2: If via talk a little bit about now it's time
Speaker 2: to plug the times dates place where where can people
Speaker 2: see the film?
Speaker 3: Okay, go to rivertownfilm dot org and you can buy
Speaker 3: a ticket for our screening of No One Cares About
Speaker 3: Crazy People, which will be a Wednesday, January twenty eighth,
Speaker 3: eight pm at the Nayac Center in Nayak. It's a
Speaker 3: great place to come have dinner beforehand. There are lots
Speaker 3: of delicious places to eat with delicious food beforehand. And
Speaker 3: I look forward to resuming this conversation which I've really
Speaker 3: enjoyed with Gail and Alissa and Dina Pataki, the film's editor,
Speaker 3: will also be there with us and lots of other
Speaker 3: people from the community.
Speaker 2: I hope to be as well. Lissa, Now again your
Speaker 2: important information about your organization. If people need you, need
Speaker 2: help from you, etc. How can they get Yeah?
Speaker 5: Absolutely so. Our website is a great place to start.
Speaker 6: Greater Mental Health of New York dot org, Greater Mental
Speaker 6: Health dot work.
Speaker 5: Excuse me.
Speaker 6: We have fifty five plus supports and services that service
Speaker 6: Rockland and Westchester counties, and we even crawl into Putnam
Speaker 6: for a couple of those. But you know, we're going
Speaker 6: into our eightieth year of celebrating ourselves as an agency,
Speaker 6: and we are still finding individuals.
Speaker 5: Who don't know that we exist.
Speaker 6: It ceases to amaze me, right, So we want to
Speaker 6: get the word out if you have questions, if you
Speaker 6: don't know what the right way to start is, we
Speaker 6: have a great what we call outreach and engagement team.
Speaker 5: Call the main number on our website.
Speaker 6: You're going to speak with an individual that you can say,
Speaker 6: you know, I think I need help, but I don't
Speaker 6: know what that is. And those folks are trained to
Speaker 6: be there support you and figure out where to start
Speaker 6: with all of that. But the website also is going
Speaker 6: to outline all of our programs and services.
Speaker 5: It's a great place.
Speaker 2: No one cares about crazy people. Wednesday, January twenty eighth,
Speaker 2: eight pm at the Niaccenter, Ladies, thank you so much,
Speaker 2: as has been an absolutely wonderful conversation really really intelligent.
Speaker 5: Thank you for.
Speaker 4: Having Thank you for the opportunity Frank again, and I
Speaker 4: really town film and to greater mental health for partnering
Speaker 4: on this.
Speaker 2: I encourage people to go and see the film. It's
Speaker 2: narrated by Robert say his name for me. I want
Speaker 2: to mass Oden Kirk. I didn't want to kill and nobody.
Speaker 2: He's far from nobody and the.
Speaker 4: Original and I will also say original music by Jeff Tweety,
Speaker 4: the front.
Speaker 2: Man for Wilco.
Speaker 4: So for music fans out there, those having Bob and
Speaker 4: Jeff as part of this has been a great gift.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's the real deal. I want to let people
Speaker 2: know that it really is to yourselves a favor. See
Speaker 2: the film and stay for the conversation afterwards. It's important.
Speaker 3: Thank you.
Speaker 2: Okay, you're very welcome, ladies, And of course we offer
Speaker 2: special thanks to our listeners who take time to give
Speaker 2: us a voice in their lives. Remember you offer a
Speaker 2: fresh topic just about every week. Catch us wherever and
Speaker 2: whenever you get your favorite podcasts. That includes apples, Spotify,
Speaker 2: iHeartRadio and all the rest. Check us out at the
Speaker 2: Hudson River Radio Facebook page. You can leave us a
Speaker 2: comment there as well too. You know you can catch
Speaker 2: my writing. I have my own blog, talk frank ww
Speaker 2: dot talgsh Frank dot blogspot dot com, and I also
Speaker 2: publish a column every Friday in Nayaknews and Views. If
Speaker 2: you like this show, you may like my writing as well.
Speaker 2: I invite you to check it out. Okay, you know
Speaker 2: I always leave you a couple of the last things,
Speaker 2: a slogan that I feel is appropriate, and some great
Speaker 2: original closing music. Today we're going to get one from
Speaker 2: Martin Luther King as we celebrated his birthday this week.
Speaker 2: And I've said it before, and I'll say it again
Speaker 2: over and over again. He said this originally in nineteen
Speaker 2: sixty three, and I think it's very appropriate to our
Speaker 2: conversation today. Darkness cannot drive out darkness. Only light can
Speaker 2: do that. Hate cannot drive out hate. Only love can
Speaker 2: do that. All Right, we've got some great closing music.
Speaker 2: It's a stand up and be counted by Stephen Swan
Speaker 2: and David Snyder, two longtime friends from there soon to
Speaker 2: be released album Swan and Snyder, a fifty year collection.
Speaker 2: The title is in response to human rights abuses everywhere.
Speaker 2: For our engineer, the mailman, mister Neil Richter, I'm your host,
Speaker 2: Frank Lebono, and we hope to have you. Have you
Speaker 2: join us on the next being Frank, We're the only
Speaker 2: way to be of course, is Frank, take care of everyone?
Speaker 5: Are you waiting for?
Speaker 8: Sad?
Speaker 2: What are you waiting for? Stand up? What are you
Speaker 2: waiting for?
Speaker 3: Shant?
Speaker 8: Everyone out, nay, this time is right now, the says,
Speaker 8: don't yet to what you do?
Speaker 2: See A smile hundred face makes that happen?
Speaker 8: Well, wait waiting for and we have What are you
Speaker 8: waiting for?
Speaker 3: Stead?
Speaker 8: What are you waiting for? Shant?
Speaker 1: What are you waiting for?
Speaker 3: Yet?
Speaker 8: Candy?
Speaker 6: When child chill?
Speaker 8: Love is shady?
Speaker 2: W com holler? J't I shine?
Speaker 8: So what will be better?
Speaker 2: We can under the time.
Speaker 3: You know, shi.
Speaker 5: Shin yo.
Speaker 2: Say this right now?
Speaker 5: Boy?
Speaker 3: What is that?
Speaker 5: We got to get it straight.
Speaker 8: You don't left them because what did sit?
Speaker 5: Jo?
Speaker 3: Happy to me?
Speaker 8: Waiting to wake you? Sad to wake people? Waiting for people.
Speaker 5: To start.
Speaker 8: Start. It's well work.
Speaker 1: Hudson River Radio dot Com.
Speaker 2: Mm hmm.