Shattered Families: the Collapse of America's Mental Health System
"Shattered Families" is my family's attempt to change America's national mental health disaster. Congress seems unable to fix it. Neither do the states. So my wife, son and I, decided to do something ourselves. We decided to make this movie. Here's the premise: In 1959 there were 350,000 Americans with serious mental illness all getting treatment in hospitals. The word "homeless mentally ill" didn't exist. No mentally ill persons were in jail or prison. There had been one mass shooting in the past decade. Move forward to the 21at century. In America today there are 350,000 sick persons rotting on our urban streets. 1.2 million mentally sick people languish in our jails and prisons. There is a mass shooting every day. What happened? Our movie "Shattered Families" tells that story. It tells the story of our national mental health system nightmare through the eyes of the families that have been devastated by our national failings. Know this: the system of total neglect we have today, was planned. This disaster was done on purpose. As one mother says, "The system was planned to fail and it does. So your child either ends up in the gutter or the morgue." We offer solutions to the problem as well.
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STEPHEN SEAGERDirector
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STEPHEN SEAGERWriter
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STEPHEN SEAGER, NICOLE FORSTON, METTE HANSEN SEAGERProducer
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STEPHEN SEAGERKey Cast
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Project Type:Documentary
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Runtime:49 minutes 18 seconds
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Completion Date:June 27, 0016
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Production Budget:15,000 USD
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Country of Origin:United States
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Country of Filming:United States
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Shooting Format:DIGITAL
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Film Color:Color
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First-time Filmmaker:Yes
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Student Project:No
I am a psychiatrist and a writer. I've written seven books mostly about the our national mental health care system and those who live and work in it. My latest book , "Behind the Gates of Gomorrah, a Year with the Criminally Insane," is currently in development for major network cable series. This is my first film
"Shattered Families: the Collapse of America's Mental Health System" is my family's attempt to change the national mental health care disaster that masquerades as a treatment system. No one else seemed capable of doing it. So we took our shot.