A SOUND VISION

Mersey Care’s NHS mental health team at HMP Liverpool have produced a powerful short film to encourage people to open up and not struggle alone with thoughts of suicide.

We know that movies have power so we’ve employed this technique here to support our overall approach –our vision for suicide prevention,” says Josh Gilroy who manages the Suicide Awareness Pathway at the prison and also directed the film.

“We want to prevent suicide and we think this video will highlight the different kinds of help available to prisoners who may be suffering alone and point them to the care they can access from our team and others.”

To create the film Josh joined forces with a local production company and Informatics Merseyside colleague Joe Lewis.

“Joe had written a play, The Confession, that focuses on suicide awareness,” Josh explains. “Originally we planned to stage a performance of this to a selected prison audience but we felt that wasn’t enough –we wanted to reach a wider audience; and so we shifted our thinking to the idea of a short film that could potentially reach all of our prison population.

Josh and Joe spent weeks working with prisoners to fine tune the script; making it as realistic as possible, before casting local actors Dan Hippoylte and Lewis Prior to play the lead characters.

The film was shot entirely on location at HMP Liverpool and will be shown to all new arrivals at the prison.

“We are pleased that the film is now online,” says Josh. “We want those outside of prison to watch it and see what we are doing.”

You can view the film at: https://www.merseycare.nhs.uk/hmp-liverpool Or scan the QR code here. Please be aware the film contains adult themes and strong language.