Struggling with Severe Mental Illness: The Story of Maisie

Sally Burke is a mother from Hull. But to see her daughter – 13-year-old Maisie – she is forced to make a 118-mile roundtrip to Sheffield, where Maisie is currently sectioned under the Mental Health Act and receiving treatment for paranoid schizophrenia.

A national shortage of hospital beds means people in crisis are being shunted all over the UK for hospital care. This, tragically, includes children. If troubled young people having to wait for two years for mental health treatment wasn't bad enough, that they can often only be admitted to psychiatric wards that are miles away from their homes and families is even more terrifying.

The figures surrounding the mental health of young Brits are alarming. The number of children being admitted to hospital for self-harm is at a five-year high. Admissions of girls aged 10-14 have increased by 93 percent in the last four years, to 5,953, while there's been a rise of 45 percent in boys. Within this same timeframe, NHS spending on children's mental health services in England has fallen by approximately £50 million.

These have left local services in a desperate position, and the human consequence of this is felt by people like Sally and Maisie. We join the former as she makes the trek to Sheffield, its emotional toll only increased by the knowledge that just a mile away from her home is a unit that could have housed Maisie had its overnight care facility not been shut two years ago.

Maisie is a short film about what happens to a family when a child is hit by severe mental health problems and a government breaks its promises.

[StaticImage]

So... where's Maisie and how is she doing? Because you didn't tell us a fucking thing about her in the story about her.

[nerdatheart]

I assumed we would actually be seeing Maisie....

[xUnleadedx]

So, it should be called "The Story of Maisie's Mom" cause we learned little about living with mental health. We learned that it inconveniences the mother (that's how she makes it sound) and is exhausting to her. But nothing about the actual mental illness. Hopefully there are more parts.

[Plague_Doc]

Would've liked to atleast see the meeting between the mother and the daughter.

[howiemandel]

So what sickness does the daughter have? They just keep on saying "severe mental illness" it's annoying

[mememachine]

Don't call it "The Story of Maisie" if she's not in it. I get the exploitation business, but the title is misleading

[rubi-roe]

did anyone else feel a bit robbed by not being able to see her daughter and hear anything from her

[VICE]

The story of Sally Burke and her 13-year-old daughter Maisie, who has been placed in a psychiatric ward 118 miles away from home.

[SSK-qdwc]

When you think your gonna meet Maisie but the credits hit you out of nowhere...😒

[wantsome]

I came down with paranoid schizophrenia when I was 18. In the US it is very difficult to get help if you have a mental illness. Mental health in America isn't taken serious. The mentally ill either end up in prison or homeless. Many people can't get help until they commit crime and by then it's too late so they put them in prison. In my state they closed all the mental hospitals in the 90's. When they closed the hospitals the state took a busload of mentally ill people and dropped then off in front of my grandmothers in the middle of the night in downtown Detroit with no medication or anything. It was freezing cold and they had no coats. In America if there is no money to be made off of it no one gives a shit.

[lrdjacob]

the story of maisies mum: my struggle with narcissism and entitlement

[rui]

this should be called struggling with a two hour drive because that's like all that's happened.

[TylerRaber]

An hour drive is not that bad at all. In the US the drive would probably have to be much further to reach a mental facility capable of handling young children. Not to mention, you could move closer to the hospital.

[shedinjan]

I've never had a hard time understanding British accent until now.

[wizardofnigeria]

This should be called " the story of a mom who drives a car to see her daughter once in a while."

[bendlor]

so i had to watch the entire video then read the description to know what exactly the fuck was going on

[JM-kzif]

Anyone suffering with suicidal thoughts just know you mean a lot you are meant to be here and cannot let negative emotions consume your life and happiness you got to keep strong no matter how hard it may seem

[Hogis__]

More like the story about Maisie's mom and her car, very disappointing.

[borg_wow]

I was in a mental institution two states away from my home in California. I was locked up in Colorado. My mom used to come once a month by plane and visit me. It was certainly an emotional and financial toll.

[TweedleDumInk]

Some of you people are gutless, this woman obviously goes through a lot, had to stop working as her child's health effected her and she travels 100+ miles to see her daughter which costs lots of fuel money, preparation and time. Poor woman, no mother who tries so hard to see her daughter deserves negative comments, I hope everything will eventually work out for her and her daughter.