From new series It’s Fine, I’m Fine to a range of powerful documentaries, this new collection, part of SBS’s just-launched (which includes articles, podcasts and guides to finding help in your language), offers a range of perspectives on mental health.
Here’s a selection of what’s in the collection.
It’s Fine, I’m Fine
As you can probably guess from the title, all is not entirely fine for the folk featured in the eight stories woven across this engaging four-part series. That’s why they’re seeking help – some more enthusiastically than others, and with unpredictable results. It’s Fine, I’m Fine, from creator/director Stef Smith (Joy Boy, The Lost Tapes) follows Joanne (played by theatre and television actress and filmmaker Ana Maria Belo), a suburban Australian psychologist, as she helps her patients explore the mess, humour, melancholy and unexpected magic of life. There’s Betty, a Polynesian women who’s just getting comfortable with talking to Joanne when the ghost of her dead grandmother, Babu Agnes, appears. There’s a young woman who’s been diagnosed with anxiety, a six-year-old boy with a challenging obsession, a man with terrible sleep issues. With ghosts and grief, dark comedy and confrontations, laughs and life lessons, It’s Fine, I’m Fine showcases a brace of emerging writers (including Anna Lindner, whose series also recently arrived at SBS On Demand) and a range of issues that can push our mental health off kilter.
Four-part series It’s Fine, I’m Fine premiered Monday 10 October on NITV, with episodes airing at 9pm each Monday. Episodes will also be available each week . Start with episode one:
Mental as Everything
Two mates, some music and honest talk about mental health: that’s a very quick summary of this multi-award-winning film, where singer-songwriter and filmmaker Damon Smith (previously diagnosed with both OCD and bipolar disorder) and fellow musician Adam Coad (who has anxiety), share the reality of living with – and trying to talk about – mental illness in a world where, as the film puts it, “it’s okay to talk about a broken arm but not okay to talk about a broken mind”. Described as “a beautiful way to treat discussions about mental health … both forward with its subject matter yet fun in the delivery,” this is funny, honest and raw.
Mental as Everything aired Monday 10 October on SBS, and is now streaming at SBS On Demand:
The Art in Healing
Can art help us deal with trauma? This half-hour documentary by award-winning director, writer and producer Stella Grammenos-Dimadis (also an artist herself) explores the role that creativity and art can play in people’s lives, especially when dealing with trauma or the aftermath of natural disasters. Filmed in NSW and Victoria, the documentary talks to artists, musicians and art therapists as well as people navigating traumatic events with arts-driven healing, delving into issues such as how our brains change in response to artistic experiences and the role of creativity in everyday life.
The Art in Healing aired Monday 10 October on SBS, and is now streaming at SBS On Demand:
A Beginner’s Guide to Grief
Harriet ‘Harry’ Wylde is about to learn that grief doesn’t play by the rules. Soon, neither will she. Harry is one hot mess – understandably, as she’s just lost both terminally ill parents in the same week. An unpredictable fun park of grief follows in this SBS Digital Originals short-form dark comedy, based on writer and creator Anna Lindner’s personal experiences. Lindner also plays Harry in this series that leans into the terrifyingly messy but transformative experience that is grief. After Harry inherits cassette tapes with a guide to grieving from her mother, and discovers her former foster sister, Daisy (Cassandra Sorrell) camping in the cemetery, things become even more unpredictable.
A Beginner’s Guide to Grief is now streaming . It is available with subtitles in , , , and .
Osher Günsberg: A Matter of Life and Death
Talking about suicide isn’t easy, but as Osher Günsberg says in this documentary, it’s an important conversation. “Making a show about suicide is very tricky. We absolutely have to talk about it… you can’t fix a problem if you don’t acknowledge it exists,” he says in A Matter of Life and Death. This documentary special investigates how new science, innovative thinking and technology are helping prevent suicide. Through the prism of Günsberg’s own mental health experience – he’s honest about the challenges he’s faced in the past – he examines why suicide rates remain high in Australia, and looks at what is being done across the country to try and make a difference.
Osher Günsberg: A Matter of Life and Death is streaming now at SBS On Demand.
Neighbors
This multi-award-winning observational documentary special follows people with mental illnesses who, after years in an institution in the Croatian city of Osijek, try to find their way back in the ‘outside’. When the institution closes, how will they integrate into the society they’ve been isolated from for years?
Neighbors aired Monday 10 October on NITV and is available for 30 days at SBS On Demand:
Stacey Dooley: On The Psych Ward / Back On The Psych Ward
Stacey Dooley returns to Springfield Hospital in ‘Back on the Psych Ward’. Source: True Vision East
When journalist and presenter Stacey Dooley heads to Springfield Hospital, one of the longest-running mental health units in the UK, it’s eye-opening. For the staff working on the frontiers of mental health care, and for the patients, every day is full of decisions, change, ups and downs, so Dooley’s ability to connect with some of those staying at the hospital gives a rare glimpse of just how tough it can be. But no-one could have predicted that the challenges were about to get even worse, with the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic creating widespread mental health pressures, and that’s what prompts Dooley’s return in Back On The Psych Ward.
Over six months, including the second national lockdown in the UK, she spends time with the team at Springfield again, meeting patients such as Ali, whose OCD rituals are ruining her life, Coral, whose alcohol dependency pushes her mental health over the edge and Oskar, who is struggling with suicidal thoughts. Sharing their stories must have taken a lot of courage, but as one patient tells Dooley, talking about what’s going on may help others. “I think if sharing my story will… even help one person, the tiniest bit, for me that is huge. It’s worth it.”
Stacey Dooley: On The Psych Ward airs 10:50pm, Tuesday 18 October on SBS VICELAND, with Stacey Dooley: Back On The Psych Ward following at 11:45pm. Both will be available at SBS On Demand for 30 days after they air.
See the full Mind Your Health collection (more titles will be added throughout October).
Need help? Find out about mental health services in a range of languages . You can also find a wide range of articles, podcasts and more relating to mental health and wellbeing in the new SBS initiative, .
