(79 votes, average: 4.48 out of 5)
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Original Title: Shattered Families: the Collapse of America’s Mental Health System
“Shattered Families” is my family’s attempt to change America’s national mental health disaster. Congress seems unable to fix it. Neither do the states. So my wife, son and I, decided to do something ourselves. We decided to make this movie. Here’s the premise: In 1959 there were 350,000 Americans with serious mental illness all getting treatment in hospitals. The word “homeless mentally ill” didn’t exist. No mentally ill persons were in jail or prison. There had been one mass shooting in the past decade. Move forward to the 21at century. In America today there are 350,000 sick persons rotting on our urban streets. 1.2 million mentally sick people languish in our jails and prisons. There is a mass shooting every day. What happened? Our movie “Shattered Families” tells that story. It tells the story of our national mental health system nightmare through the eyes of the families that have been devastated by our national failings. Know this: the system of total neglect we have today, was planned. This disaster was done on purpose. As one mother says, “The system was planned to fail and it does. So your child either ends up in the gutter or the morgue.” We offer solutions to the problem as well.
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Janet
Oh how I can relate. Thank you.
Suzanne Jensen
Powerful, insightful, incredibly and painfully accurate portrayal of the truly fractured and shattered families of seriously mentally ill loved ones….this is what TOTAL “System” FAILURE looks and feels like……kudos to Dr. Seagar for telling our stories so truthfully and honestly! Long may it stay in circulation and may it be shown far and wide…..#hopingitbringsgreatchangetoSMI
Suzanne Jensen
Sorry…..should be Dr. Seager and not Dr. Seagar!
Joanie Springer
Such an important movie…..which needs to be widely distributed and viewed. If our current culture of mass killings and rampant homelessness doesn’t move the human heart to respond, then we are a lost civilization. As Dr. Seager states in his movie, it will take a grassroots movement – bottom up – to make the changes that are desperately needed. No one chooses to be mentally ill, it is deeply hidden within a person, and thus deeply misunderstood and mistreated. It is way past time to make medical help available to those afflicted.
Robin Duffey
The truth and nothing but the truth! As the mother of a man with paranoid schizophrenia I relate to this film in a very deep way. I must say it’s about time someone as caring and knowledgeable as Dr. Seager told the truth. What is wrong with our law makers in the US, and what is it going to take to make an everlasting change to help our very sick children? The facts and the truth were told in this amazing film.
DJ Jaffe
Terrific film that really touches all the bases beautifully.
Janet Hays
5 stars!!! Great documentary film that describes the broken mental health care system perfectly and what needs to happen to fix it.
Captivating, really informative and well done.
Anthony hernandez
Such a tragedy..our county is in a crisis.
We need mental health reform now… TTT
ttt.transformingtreatabletragedies.org
Amy Yannello
This should be required viewing for all elected officials: county, state, and federal, who deal in mental health policy, as well as sheriffs and police chiefs across the country, imo, as well as shared in and among our church circles and community groups.
To acknowledge where we are, we must acknowledge from whence we came and see the two are one and the same. Dr. Seager brings this home for us in vivid detail and unassailable facts: The “system of care” as it is today is purposeful and determined indifference and neglect. The results are death, homelessness, and incarceration of the seriously ill the likes of which is seen in no other industrialized nation. We know we can do better; the imperative is that we must.
The question is: How many more “shattered families” are we willing to sacrifice to the “system” of the status quo?
Dr. Seager and his speakers’ stories urge changemakers and policychangers into bold action.
Let everyone heed their call.
Bonnie
Is the world telling us that the parents of these children do not know, are not aware that their children are racist? Are the parents racist & condone this behavior. Domestic abuse is a form of mental illness gone amuck. Domestic abuse is on the rise, children are affected, watch & are victims. Nothing is done. No one believes Women abused. Children watch & learn. No one believes & no one is culpable. Sosiopathy is a form of inhumanity insanity. People who do this are mentally disorganised thinking. Anger taken to dysfunctional behavior, many of these people are mentally Ill. People had Domestic Terrorism in Germany & it resulted in 8 million Jews, homosexual, anyone who was not Ayrian were murdered. It is consigned that is allowing this behavior. I have a answer. If you are White Supremacist you are insane. If your child is bullying you or others your child is ill. If partners are being abused there is a societal insanity being promoted. I know the answer.