The theme for FOM 2010 "Role of family in mental health/disorders"
Pages of Life presented the experience of a young women with schizophrenia and its impact on her family. It showed how partnership with the mental health system could mobilize the benefits of both professional treatment and family support.
Payanam developed an ambitious agenda for a short film over the course of a train ride from Mumbai to Kanyakumari. It illustrated the problem of the dementia affecting an old man cast off by his family, complemented and the irony of concern and prospects for care from an unlikely source.
The collaboration for healing of a psychiatrist working with the family of a young man with schizophrenia was presented in Prerna (Inspiration). Based on professional advice, his family encouraged him gently but firmly to re-enter life in the world outside his home, explaining how their role provided an essential complement to medical treatment.
Although the potential for mental health problems, such as depression and obsessions, is acknowledged by professionals, it is a neglected topic with regard to public awareness. Ghost in My House / Mind presented the experience of a young woman after bearing her first child. She feared that unwanted thoughts about hurting her baby made it impossible for her to be the good mother she wanted to be.
The demands for service from girl children and young married women in many Indian households have long been matters of concern for social reform. The film Ishana showed the limits of medicines to treat a young woman’s psychotic symptoms without confronting the impact over time of harsh gender-related demands from scolding parents and an impatient husband.
The originality and quality of production was acknowledged for the film, My Son. It presented the awareness and coming to terms with the impact of obsessive-compulsive disorder through the unspoken reflections of the father of a boy with this condition.