Filmmaker behind 'Insanity' documentary calls for Canada to declare mental health emergency

The movie poster for "Insanity," a documentary by Calgary-based wiriter and director Wendy Hill-Tout, which tells the story of her family's unsuccessful search for her schizophrenic brother in Vancouver' Downtown Eastside. The film is screening in B.C. this weekend, and Hill-Tout hope it will inspire the country to declare a public health emergency over the state of mental health.

When Wendy Hill-Tout’s older brother, Bruce, went missing 25 years ago, the Calgary writer and filmmaker went looking for him on Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside.

While her search was unsuccessful, Hill-Tout turned her family’s tragic story into a feature documentary that she hopes will inspire the federal and provincial governments to declare a public health emergency over the state of mental health.

“Insanity,” will make its theatrical debut across Canada this week—including at Vancouver’s Rio Theatre at 2 p.m. on Saturday.

Hill-Tout will travel to B.C. to attend her movie’s premiere in both Victoria and Vancouver, and spoke to CTV News Vancouver by phone ahead of the screenings.

“One of the reasons I chose to tell my own story was because I wanted to personalize it. These people you see on the street corners, they’re somebody’s brother and sister, they’re someone’s family,” Hill-Tout said.

“These are people, they are loved, they have the same needs and desires as us. They’re human beings who deserve our respect and help,” she continued.

Audience members can expect to learn about Bruce’s experience with schizophrenia, which he was diagnosed with later in life—something Hill-Tout says isn’t unusual for people experiencing that mental illness.

“He was a loner, kept to himself a lot, he couldn’t seem to hold a job. He went to art school—he was a beautiful artist—but he failed. All of those things were symptoms, but we’re not educated enough to know what the symptoms are, what to look out for,” she said.

“There’s just so little known about it, back then there was so much stigma. I mean, there still is,” she added.

Bruce was diagnosed by a doctor in Florida, where he ended up living on the streets after disappearing during travels in Mexico.

“My dad finally got a call from a hospital (in Florida). Someone had reported that he was living in the woods and wasn’t well,” said Hill-Tout.

Back in Canada, she says there were little options for her brother—who had become suicidal—to receive help, as there weren’t enough hospital beds or opportunities to get Bruce stabilized on medication.

“I want people to know that when (people with schizophrenia) are not on medication, they’re living a life of hell and we’re not helping them and they are not able to help themselves,” said Hill-Tout.

Dr. James McEwen, a Vancouver-based biomedical engineer and appointee of the Order of British Columbia, was involved in the making of Insanity, and addresses the issue of the country’s hospital bed shortage in the movie.

“We’ve seen a very drastic, I would say, reduction in hospital beds. The numbers of beds in Canada is amongst the lowest in the world,” McEwen said.

Other British Columbians shared their challenges navigating the mental health-care system for the documentary, including Vancouver’s Shirley Chan, the vice-president of Pathways Serious Mental Illness Society.

Chan says she was told her daughter needed to be homeless before receiving vital support.

“The next time she goes into hospital, refuse to bring her home,” Chan recalls being told by one doctor. “It’s unconscionable that in our society with so much wealth allows people to live in tents and on the streets,” Chan says in the movie.

James Harry of the Haisla Nation, who walks through Vancouver’s DTES as an outreach worker, is featured in the movie as well.

“The importance of this job is to show them that they matter, because a lot of them feel like this is all they deserve, and nobody deserves this,” Harry said.

The team behind Insanity has launched a campaign through the website www.insanitydoc.com, and is asking people to sign a letter, demanding for the state of mental heath in this country to be declared an emergency.

“I’m just asking people to speak out and write letters because they’re so effective,” said Hill-Tout.

“The hope is that it’s become so bad that we can’t ignore it anymore. I really believe that people want something done, they want this problem addressed. We need to have a 20-year plan, and we need to do it now.”