Individual Research into Mental Health

Suicide and self-harm are not mental health problems themselves, but they are linked with mental distress.

In 2016, 5,668 suicides were recorded in Great Britain. Of these, 75% were male and 25% were female.
Between 2003 and 2013, 18,220 people with mental health problems took their own life in the UK.
Suicide is the most common cause of death for men aged 20-49 years in England and Wales.
One person in fifteen had made a suicide attempt at some point in their life.
The suicide rate in Scotland rose by 8% between 2015 and 2016, with 728 suicides registered in Scotland in 2016.

Schizophrenia is a serious disorder of the mind and brain but it is also highly treatable - yet the facts around it make for alarming reading.
For every £1 spent on early intervention psychosis teams that work with young people in their first episode of schizophrenia, £18 is saved.
Aerobic exercise, such as using the treadmill, walking or cycling, performed for 30-40 minutes, three times a week for at least a 12 week period, was effective at improving mental health outcomes in people with schizophrenia.
The average per person cost of lost employment (including service costs) due to schizophrenia and related conditions for those aged 45-64 is estimated at £19,078, while costs for those aged 15-44 were just under £30,000.


Mental health statistics: children and young people
20% of adolescents may experience a mental health problem in any given year.
50% of mental health problems are established by age 14 and 75% by age 24.
10% of children and young people (aged 5-16 years) have a clinically diagnosable mental problem
yet 70%of children and adolescents who experience mental health problems have not had appropriate interventions at a sufficiently early age.

Group Plot Presentation Role Allocation

Roles

Nia:
Costume
Research on mental illness
Target Audience
5 key scenes

Megan:
Todays Fears
Mood Board
Setting
5 Key scenes

Morgan:
Characters
3 films that influenced the trailer ideas

Cameron:
Music
3 films that influenced the trailer ideas

Group Plot Synopsis (write up)

Basis of the film

A seventeen year old boy named Morgan suffers from depression, paranoia and anxiety. His parents got divorced around 2 years ago and since then his mental health has spiralled. His parents constantly have a go at one another, trying to get the upper hand. They don't pay their son any attention what so ever, they have not noticed him deteriorate, month after month, day after day. The first people to notice his deterioration is the teacher at school who notices his grades slipping, usually he is an intelligent pupil who always gets good grades. She brings him in for a chat about his grades and she attempts to suggest ways in which he can get himself back on track.

What the teacher does not know however is that Morgan is a victim of bullying, the bully is called Zac who is the main bully out of the group of bullies. Every night Morgan receives horrifying messages not only from Zac but from the rest of the group too via social media. He sits on his bedroom floor staring at his laptop screen reading them, day after day for hours and hours. Not knowing what he has done to deserve such horrible messages. His school and home life has changed so much compared to how his life used to be and he is struggling to cope with it. He turns to self half as a way of coping, he isolates himself and begins to despise school which he always used to enjoy. He used to have a circle of friends, he used to enjoy going to school and seeing them, he liked to complete work. But now he hates it, he hates it all.

Morgan has a friend, an imaginary friend. This friend encourages Morgan to retaliate against these bullies, he should not let them walk all over him, he should retaliate. No one knows about this friend that Morgan has, only him. Each night when Morgan receives messages and he stares at the screen angry, annoyed and upset. At one point it gets so bad that he tries taking his own life by over dossing. But things change when he begins to retaliate, by words and words only. No physical harm is done. The teachers are still concerned about the state in which Morgan is in, and it gets all too much for him and he reveals what has been happening in his life. They arrange for a psychiatrist to help him, after a few months of Morgan going to a psychiatrist his grades begin to get back to how they used to be, and he is much more content.

Changes
Morgan will now be physically bullied instead of it only being cyber bullied.
He will also retaliate to the bullies, killing Zac where he then has a guilty conscience due to what he has done.
He tries to commit suicide because of his actions but his imaginary friend stops him from doing this.

Group Plot

A long, sharp, distant whisper - 'Morgan' - like a caged animal, unable to escape from the maze of his mind. An intelligent mind. A lost mind. His friend with him, nameless, white and pure and malicious. 1:31am. Sweat soaked sheets, shaking and laughing.

'What now?'

Silence.

'It's too early, why now?'

A twitch toward the door. A hand beneath his flesh. Pointing?

'Your body. It's a sheet?'

Silence again. An effort to stand.

Then nothing. It had gone as soon as it had come. But a note on his desk assures him, Morgan, of what it tried to tell him. It can write, but it cannot talk. A mute.

The note read:


Please.


Kill.


Them.



7th January, one week later. An extract from the Abergavenny Chronicle:




It’s still unclear as to the cause of the three children’s most hard-hitting deaths, as it is reported each had never met one another in the past. Casey (13), Robyn (8) and Lucy (15) were found last weekend on the banks of the river Usk, near Llanfoist, Abergavenny. Police say the wounds found on Casey and Lucy resembled an attack from some foreign animal; that of a grizzly bear or wolverine. Robyn was found 20 metres from the other two, with his face in the river and no evidence of a struggle.



‘I didn’t do it. I didn’t do it. I swear to you, I did not do it!’

‘Morgan, don’t you dare lie to me!’

‘Zac please, you dropped your money, I swear! I didn’t…’

But then, before the word even had chance to form on his tongue, Morgan was on the ground, dazed and winded. Zac above him at a horrific worm’s eye of an angle. This was the first time he lost a friend. Only last month was really the first time. He lost himself last month. Of course he gained something with it: the something that killed those poor children down by the river last weekend. Or was that Morgan? Or was that the thing telling Morgan to do it? One of the children, Lucy, knew Morgan’s sister. They’d go to the cinema when Baker Street actually showed something worth watching, then Lucy would come back with Rebecca, half-hiding behind her, shy because she wasn’t used to sixth formers like Morgan, the intelligent and not so bad to look (stare) at ones. Of course that was before now. He was lying on the floor now. Zac had given up. No time for ‘pathetic girls’ like the one that lay down, sprawled, winded, taste of, wait. Is that…


Two weeks later
‘Blood?’

A slow nod.

‘Mine or yours?’

A slow shake of the head. Sheet dragging across the dust, it begins to move.

Last week they had killed Rebecca. She just wasn’t very good at keeping his secrets anymore. Morgan would tell her a lot, but not mum or dad. They divorced about two years ago maybe? Not so long before Christmas. That wasn’t good timing. Sometimes it feels like telling Morgan to kill them as well. But not yet. Perhaps never. But it would be nice. Morgan barely saw his dad anyway, so it would be difficult.

‘Where are we?’

It turns around. A yellow sticky note on its back with the words ‘Nearly. There.’ Written in black marker.

‘Like the note in my room.’ Morgan whispers. And at this whisper it stops, dead, like a car against a brick wall. No ricochet. No correcting of balance. It just stops.

‘What?’

It’s kneeling now. (Does it even have knees?) It’s in the way of something.

‘That’s Zac isn’t it?’

The head turns beneath the sheet.

‘You showed me in my…’ (My what? My dream? My wander of the mind? My reality?) ‘My dream. No. Yes, my dream’

It shakes its head. It stands. An effort to stand.

‘That wasn’t a dream.’

It thrusts its fist against the post, anger? It feels anger. It feels sorry for the people it makes Morgan kill.


Two days later
No more dead. Only the three at the river, he hardly remembers, and Zac, and Rebecca before that. But Rebecca wasn’t his fault. Zac was his fault, and the three at the river were accidents. I promise you. Nothing in between the One week, Two weeks or Two days later intervals. Morgan spends most his time away from people. He goes to school, but cannot cope. The teachers notice he cannot cope. But they see his eyes. The dark oval voids that grieve the loss of sleep. The eyes that laugh ‘I killed them all. Uh-huh. Now my grades are spiralling and my mind is spiralling and you won’t do anything about it. Because it told you last night, or it will tell you soon, that if you involve yourself, take what you shouldn’t have, well… I’ll kill you too!’.



Morgan will sit on the floor of his father’s bathroom tomorrow. He’ll have tried to kill himself, but I’ll be gone. It won’t be my fault this time. His psychiatrist won’t know that though, neither will Morgan. He’ll think he saw me because his mind makes him see me now. He misses me. So he creates me

Group Plot Synopsis

A long, sharp, distant whisper - 'Morgan' - like a caged animal, unable to escape from the maze of his mind. An intelligent mind. A lost mind. His friend with him, nameless, white and pure and malicious. 1:31am. Sweat soaked sheets, shaking and laughing.
'What now?'
Silence.
'It's too early, why now?'
A twitch toward the door. A hand beneath his flesh. Pointing?
'Your body. It's a sheet?'
Silence again. An effort to stand.
Then nothing. It had gone as soon as it had come. But a note on his desk assures him, Morgan, of what it tried to tell him. It can write, but it cannot talk. A mute.

The note read:




Please.


Kill.


Them.







7th January, one week later. An extract from the Abergavenny Chronicle:




It’s still unclear as to the cause of the three children’s most hard-hitting deaths, as it is reported each had never met one another in the past. Casey (13), Robyn (8) and Lucy (15) were found last weekend on the banks of the river Usk, near Llanfoist, Abergavenny. Police say the wounds found on Casey and Lucy resembled an attack from some foreign animal; that of a grizzly bear or wolverine. Robyn was found 20 metres from the other two, with his face in the river and no evidence of a struggle.




‘I didn’t do it. I didn’t do it. I swear to you, I did not do it!’

‘Morgan, don’t you dare lie to me!’

‘Zac please, you dropped your money, I swear! I didn’t…’

But then, before the word even had chance to form on his tongue, Morgan was on the ground, dazed and winded. Zac above him at a horrific worm’s eye of an angle. This was the first time he lost a friend. Only last month was really the first time. He lost himself last month. Of course he gained something with it: the something that killed those poor children down by the river last weekend. Or was that Morgan? Or was that the thing telling Morgan to do it? One of the children, Lucy, knew Morgan’s sister. They’d go to the cinema when Baker Street actually showed something worth watching, then Lucy would come back with Rebecca, half-hiding behind her, shy because she wasn’t used to sixth formers like Morgan, the intelligent and not so bad to look (stare) at ones. Of course that was before now. He was lying on the floor now. Zac had given up. No time for ‘pathetic girls’ like the one that lay down, sprawled, winded, taste of, wait. Is that…




Two weeks later

‘Blood?’

A slow nod.

‘Mine or yours?’

A slow shake of the head. Sheet dragging across the dust, it begins to move.

Last week they had killed Rebecca. She just wasn’t very good at keeping his secrets anymore. Morgan would tell her a lot, but not mum or dad. They divorced about two years ago maybe? Not so long before Christmas. That wasn’t good timing. Sometimes it feels like telling Morgan to kill them as well. But not yet. Perhaps never. But it would be nice. Morgan barely saw his dad anyway, so it would be difficult.

‘Where are we?’

It turns around. A yellow sticky note on its back with the words ‘Nearly. There.’ Written in black marker.

‘Like the note in my room.’ Morgan whispers. And at this whisper it stops, dead, like a car against a brick wall. No ricochet. No correcting of balance. It just stops.

‘What?’

It’s kneeling now. (Does it even have knees?) It’s in the way of something.

‘That’s Zac isn’t it?’

The head turns beneath the sheet.

‘You showed me in my…’ (My what? My dream? My wander of the mind? My reality?) ‘My dream. No. Yes, my dream’

It shakes its head. It stands. An effort to stand.

‘That wasn’t a dream.’

It thrusts its fist against the post, anger? It feels anger. It feels sorry for the people it makes Morgan kill.




Two days later

No more dead. Only the three at the river, he hardly remembers, and Zac, and Rebecca before that. But Rebecca wasn’t his fault. Zac was his fault, and the three at the river were accidents. I promise you. Nothing in between the One week, Two weeks or Two days later intervals. Morgan spends most his time away from people. He goes to school, but cannot cope. The teachers notice he cannot cope. But they see his eyes. The dark oval voids that grieve the loss of sleep. The eyes that laugh ‘I killed them all. Uh-huh. Now my grades are spiralling and my mind is spiralling and you won’t do anything about it. Because it told you last night, or it will tell you soon, that if you involve yourself, take what you shouldn’t have, well… I’ll kill you too!’.







Morgan will sit on the floor of his father’s bathroom tomorrow. He’ll have tried to kill himself, but I’ll be gone. It won’t be my fault this time. His psychiatrist won’t know that though, neither will Morgan. He’ll think he saw me because his mind makes him see me now. He misses me. So he creates me.