David Harewood: Psychosis & Me (2019)
At 23 years old, David Harewood had a psychotic breakdown and was sectioned. As he puts it, he ‘lost his mind’.
In this film, David lets viewers into the realities of experiencing a psychotic breakdown, opening up in a way he has never done before – and in a way that viewers rarely, if ever, have seen anyone, let alone a well-known person do. Meeting up with old friends who were with him when he was sectioned, David realises quite how much he blocked out and travelling up to his hometown of Birmingham, he starts to put the pieces together with his Mum. But he doesn’t want to just trace his own story - David spends time with combined emergency NHS mental health and police teams in Birmingham as they go out on 999 calls to treat people in distress, he meets young people who are living with psychosis at an early intervention group in Solihull run by psychiatrist Erin Turner and spends time with two inspirational young people to talk about their own experiences of psychosis, their treatment and ongoing recoveries.
Presenter - David Harewood
Executive Producer - Emma Hindley
Editor - Charlie Hawryliw
Cinematographer - Sebastien Rabas
Producer - Olivia Isaacs
Producer - Wendie Ottewill
Director - Wendie Ottewill
Production Company - Films of Record Ltd
You can view the full film here on the BBC iPlayer, or a clip opposite.
