Georgia College professor makes strides forward in upcoming Central State Hospital documentary
Health receives wide-spread attention in today’s society, yet one of the most problem-prone areas does not get the attention some believe it should.
“One in four Americans will have some sort of mental health issue,” said Daniel McDonald, a Georgia College media lab coordinator who is working on a documentary about Central State Hospital. “One in 17 will have a serious issue which requires care.”
Despite this staggering figure McDonald says,“We have a tendency to not really think about mental health until it affects us personally. It shouldn’t take that.”
Thanks to McDonald and Stephen Price, an assistant professor with the Department of Mass Communication, it may not take that. The two are currently filming a documentary about Millegdeville’s Central State Hospital, the largest mental illness facility in Georgia.
Chartered in 1837 and opened in 1842, Central State has often been at the forefront of mental health care.
“To me the history of Central State is a representation of the history of mental health in America … it has been a leader in a lot of the changes that have occurred within the mental health industry,” Price said.
In late 2010, Georgia reached a settlement agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice that, starting with Central State, will change the way mental health care system functions.
The idea, according to McDonald, is to treat mental health patients within the community, to “serve people as close to home as they possibly can.” The change represents a “landmark departure” from the way care was administered in the past, he said.
And, just as it always has been, Central State continues to be a pioneer.
“We want to use the history of this hospital as an illustrative tale to portray the changes that are happening now,” McDonald said.
But despite Central State’s past and present innovations in the field of mental health, the facility has always suffered hardship. As Price puts it, “The history of Central State is consistently one of underfunding.”
The problem, he says, falls not on the state’s shoulder, but on society’s. “We’re the ones who don’t notice and don’t care if not enough money goes to mental health care. We’re the ones who have to look out for people who can’t look out for themselves.”
But thanks to the documentary, the topic of mental health has already proven interesting to members of the GC community. Over the summer semester, Price worked with students on the project as part of a documentary production course.
“I was very impressed not only with their learning on the technical side of things, but also with how much the students started to care about the issue itself,” Price said.
Price and McDonald plan to finish shooting footage for the documentary by early 2012. By May, Price says that they plan to finish editing and have a rough cut, or possibly even the final cut finished.
He says that he and McDonald are looking to release the documentary at various film festivals next year, particularly the True/False Film Fest, an annual event which takes place in Columbia, Mo.
The Central State documentary will remain close to home for Georgia College.
“This very historical facility is right here in our backyard,” Mcdonald said.“We want to help chronicle another chapter of that history.”
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