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Elevate Exclusive Preview: Hiding in Plain Sight
This year, Psych Congress Elevate is working to shine a spotlight on the mental health of America’s youth with a preview of the documentary, “Hiding in Plain Sight: Youth Mental Illness.” This is a special prescreening event for Elevate attendees, as well as an opportunity to join a live panel discussion with the filmmakers and individuals featured on screen.
This documentary presents first-person accounts from 20 youths and young adults who are struggling with mental health disorders. These individuals, ranging in age from 11 to 27 years, discuss their day-to-day lives and the management of their conditions. Filmmakers also interview parents, teachers, friends, health care providers, as well as independent mental health experts to highlight the mental health crisis facing America’s youth and young adults.
“We interviewed a diverse group of courageous young people from across the country with a range of diagnoses who spoke openly with us, and shared intimate, and often painful, details of their mental health journeys,” said directors and co-producers Erik Ewers and Christopher Loren Ewers. “We hope that by bringing these experiences to a broadcast and online audience, our film will help shed light on how commonplace — how truly universal — mental health challenges are and encourage other young people who are struggling to seek help. As the pandemic has made clear, caring for the mental health of kids, teenagers, and young adults is more vital than ever.”
Highlights from this documentary include the following stories:
- A teenager who surrenders to addiction at the age of 15
- A young Native American woman who feels so isolated she contemplates suicide
- A transgender teen who goes through periods of profound joylessness and substance use disorder
- A high school freshman whose childhood hallucinations intensify after a series of assaults
- A 14-year-old boy who is plagued by intrusive thoughts and withdraws into his own world
“We hope that this film will save lives,” said executive producer Ken Burns. “As a society, we continue to test the resiliency of youth without truly understanding how the stresses of today, including this unprecedented pandemic, are impacting them. Erik and Christopher and their team set out to listen and learn from America’s young people, documenting their experiences and allowing them to share how they are identifying new ways to address mental health challenges. It is a remarkable journey that captures the unique voices of these young people as they navigate an extraordinarily difficult era in our country’s history.”
“Hiding in Plain Sight: Youth Mental Illness” is scheduled to premiere on PBS stations nationwide June 27 and 28, 2022 at 9:00PM ET, but Psych Congress Elevate will offer an advanced screening for attendees, including a special panel presentation.
This session at Elevate will take place on Sunday, June 5, 2022, 2:50 PM to 3:50 PM PT.
Psych Congress Elevate will be live in Las Vegas, Nevada, June 3 to 5, 2022.
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