Some thoughts on mental illness and suicide



Lorraine Sage as Lucia Giaccone Malone receives
electric shock treatment in a flashback scene.  Barry
Salmon, who also composed the score for Surviving Family,
plays the doctor and Nedra McClyde is the nurse.



Katherine Hughes, pictured at right (with Sarah Wilson,who stars as Terry Malone) plays Lily Fulton,
a teen ager recently diagnosed with bi-polar disorder.



Surviving Family is first a drama - with a dose of comedy - about Terry Malone's upcoming marriage to Alex D'Amico.  But it's also about Terry's mother's mental illness and the emotional scars that the entire family carries  from her suffering and suicide.  It's about both the failures and the successes of psychiatric treatment, and the hope that things will improve.

The National Institue of Mental Health recently reported that 20% of adult Americans suffered from some form of mental illness last year, and that 8 million adults seriously considered suicide (see this article for more).  It's an issue that impacts my family, my husband's family, and many of the families that I know.

I wrote Surviving Family to take on some of these issues - not as a documentary, and not to lecture or preach.  But to support the idea that, with proper treatment (whether prescription drugs, or therapy, or a combination of both), many people with mental illnesses can and should be productive members of society. 

The failure of treatment is represented by Terry's mother, Lucia Giaccone Malone, who is wonderfully portrayed by Lorraine Sage.  And my hope for the future is shown in young Lily Fulton, played by the terrific young actress Katherine Hughes.