A Tayside mental health charity has been selected to host the premiere of a new documentary about the dangers of overmedication.
Medicating Normal explores the impact of profit-driven medicine on people in distress. It follows the journeys of a diverse group of subjects including a female combat veteran and a teenager who was prescribed psychiatric tablets for stress and mild depression.
Plus Perth will present the free online screening on Thursday, October 8 from 3pm.
The 76-minute feature will be followed by a community discussion with a panel of writers, researchers and psychiatry experts.
Susan Scott, the development manager at Plus Perth, said the film was timely after mental health issues were brought to the fore by lockdown.
She warned against the the reliance of medication to treat mental health problems.
“The medicalising of current and future distress is a travesty,” she said. “The long-term impact of this is often devastating for the person and costs more money for the country.
“The iatrogenic harm done to people as a result of medical treatment can be avoided if the resources needed are allocated to where people are being helped most at the onset of any distress.”
She added: “People need responded to when they say they are in crisis, not when the doctor or nurse decides it’s a crisis.”
