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Update from CW:
This programme has been repeated, and may still be repeated.12.01.2009
The UBUNTU CENTRE, the Non Profit Organisation, for and by persons with psychosocial disabilities, has the pleasure to announce the screening of the Docu-Drama, The Doctor WHO Hears Voices, on Cape Town TV (CTV), on Thursday 8 January 2009 at 20:30.
Drama-doc about voice hearer and professional: working together is way forward says international hearing voices movement
The doctor who hears voices: ...
featuring Rufus May and actress Ruth Wilson
The UBUNTU CENTRE, received the rights from the producer Leo Reagan, to have it screened on CTV. The following is the press release which was put out by the organisation called INTERVOICE on ... regarding the film.
INTERVOICE welcomes the broadcast of this critically acclaimed and groundbreaking drama-doc about the experience of hearing voices.
In the reconstructed documentary, INTERVOICE member, Rufus May shows it is possible to help someone who hears overwhelming and destructive voices to live their life without recourse to coercive treatment and/or powerful medications. “The doctor who hears voices” not only challenges the stigma and prejudices that surround the experience of hearing voices it also provides powerful evidence of the possibility of how people who hear voices can be assisted in learning ways to accept their voices and to recover their life.
This documentary focuses on Rufus' and his support support of Ruth, a junior doctor who is suspended from her job after she starts to hear a voice telling her to kill herself. It follows their 18-month journey as Ruth is determined to become well enough to retain her job and manage her voice and health problems.
It shows how
Rufus's innovative approach to working with people who hear voices - including
most importantly: respecting the persons own explanation for their experience
-getting them to discuss what their voices are saying and what they represent,
whilst also opposing the often automatic and unreliable diagnosis of
schizophrenia. Something that rarely if ever happens in most mental health
services.
Rufus is not only a leading expert in the field of psychology he also speaks from personal experience. At 18, he was diagnosed with schizophrenia and told he would be taking medication for the rest of his life. Rufus quickly decided that his experience would not hold him back and against his doctor's advice came off his medication and trained as a clinical psychologist. He is now revered in his field and has recently been nominated for the Mind Champion of the Year Award 2008 for his efforts to improve public understanding of mental health issues.
As Rufus says
"In the film "The Doctor Who Hears Voices" I am called a Maverick Psychologist but it is important to state there is whole school of maverick psychology to which I belong, called the International Hearing Voices movement. This movement is a combination of activists, therapists, academics and voice hearers all on an equal footing. The original Maverick refused to brand his cattle - we similarly refuse to brand people as schizophrenic when they hear voices, instead looking at the voices as messengers about peoples lives. In the film I am shown talking to Ruth's voices. This pioneering approach comes directly from my training with members of the international voice hearing movement from pioneers like Ron Coleman, Marius Romme, Sandra Escher, and Dirk Corstens to name but a few."
INTERVOICE President, Professor Marius Romme, a respected social psychiatrist called on Mental Health Services to assist in the the further development of this approach:
“This programme shows that by simply sitting down and talking to a voice hearer about their experience, validating the reality of what is happening to them and working alongside them to better understand the message the voices bring, then dealing with these issues, a person can start to live their life again. Rufus is only one committed expert by profession, imagine if whole services worked in the same way? This approach is not controversial or dangerous, it is based on over 20 years of research and action and now with initiatives in 19 countries across the world. It represents a major challenge to the approach used by psychiatric services. We urge professionals to listen to what their patients are telling them and help them understand their experiences.”
We are an network of people who believe we should listen to voices. The film takes this movement to a new audience. Perhaps one day around the world we will all listen to voices!
END
Information for Editors
For more information about our approach to hearing voices visit the INTERVOICE site at www.intervoiceonline.org
Read more about the Hearing Voices Movement at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hearing_Voices_Movement
Contact: Paul Baker, INTERVOICE coordinator on + 34 965263097 or email us: admin@intervoiceonline.org
Some facts about hearing voices:
Hearing voices in
itself is not a symptom of an illness, but is apparent in 2 - 4 % of the
population (some research gives higher estimates) and even more (about 8%) have
peculiar personal convictions, that we call delusions, and do so without being
ill. Whilst one in three becomes a psychiatric patient - two in three can cope
well and are in no need of psychiatric care and no diagnosis can be given
because 2/3 are quite healthy and well functioning. It is very significant that
there are in our society more people hearing voices who never became psychiatric
patients than there are people who hear voices and become psychiatric patients.
Marius Romme (2001)
Psychiatry in our
western culture unjustly identifies hearing voices with schizophrenia. Going to
a psychiatrist with hearing voices gives you an 80% chance of getting a
diagnosis of schizophrenia.
Marius Romme (2001)
In our research
concerning people who hear voices we found that in 77% of the people diagnosed
with schizophrenia the hearing of voices was related to traumatic experiences.
These traumatic experiences varied from being sexually abused, physically
abused, being extremely belittled over long periods from young age, being
neglected during long periods as a youngster, being very aggressively treated in
marriage, not being able to accept ones sexual identity, etc
Marius Romme
(2006)
Hearing voices in
itself is not related to the illness of schizophrenia. In population research
only 16% of the whole group of voice hearers can be diagnosed with
schizophrenia.
Marius Romme (2001)
The prognosis of
hearing voices is more positive than generally is perceived. In Sandra Escher's
research with children hearing voices, she followed 82 children over a period of
four years. In that period 64% of the children’s voices disappeared congruently
with learning to cope with emotions and becoming less stressed. In children with
whom the voices were psychiatrised and made a part of an illness and not given
proper attention, voices did not vanish, but became worse, the development of
those children was delayed.
Marius Romme (2006)
Thanks to Moosa Salie, Facilitator, UBUNTU CENTRE.
Shyness and social phobia
A leaflet produced by the Royal College of Psychiatrists and last
updated in May 2008, intended for anyone who finds shyness a problem or
who suffers from a social phobia, and for friends or family of those so
affected. The contents include a description of what a social phobia is
(general and specific phobias), what the condition feels like
(including the symptoms of anxiety), panic attacks, self-perception,
incidence, causes and mechanisms that perpetuate the condition,
complications, self help, psychological treatments including cognitive
behavioural therapy, medication, effectiveness of treatments, sources
of further information, and contact details of self-help groups.
http://www.rcpsych.ac.uk/mentalhealthinformation/mentalhealthproblems/anxietypho
Schizophrenia - key facts
An abridged patient information leaflet on the key facts about
schizophrenia, published by the Royal College of Psychiatrists in May
2008. The contents include a description of what schizophrenia is, its
causes, symptoms, pharmacological and psychological treatment, and
social support.
http://www.rcpsych.ac.uk/mentalhealthinformation/mentalhealthproblems/schizophre
Intute.ac.uk
