Mental health movie series begins July 6

Mission | June 27, 2016

For four weeks beginning Wednesday, July 6, St. Paul Lutheran Church’s Mental Health Awareness Team will host a midsummer mental health movie series. Come and watch a movie and join in discussion afterwards. Movies begin at 6:30 p.m., popcorn included.

The series is free and open to the public.

Greg Paulline, president of the local chapter of the Vietnam Veterans of America and social worker, and Jeff Weyeneth, a psychiatrist who serves in the military and at Genesis Health, will moderate the discussion for the first film, Debt of Honor. Christine Urish, an occupational therapy professor at St. Ambrose University, will moderate the discussion of Still Alice, Good Will Hunting, and Inside Out.

Debt of Honor, Greg said, takes a look through time of how survival rates and support for veterans has changed over time. Specifically for Vietnam-era veterans, the generational effects of Agent Orange exposure continues to be of significant concern, as does homelessness and post-traumatic stress disorder.

The lineup is:

JULY 6, DEBT OF HONOR

As advances in field medicine markedly reduce the number of deaths in the battlefield, increased numbers of veterans are coming home with severe injuries. These soldiers carry both visible and invisible scars of war, and their readjustment back into civilian life is often complicated by the psychological trauma and physical wounds sustained in battle. Today, with the United States fighting the longest war in its history, it has become imperative to create a bridge between civilians and soldiers, forging ties with the 1 percent of Americans who comprise the nation’s military.

JULY 13, STILL ALICE

Alice Howland is a renowned linguistics professor happily married with three grown children. All that begins to change when she strangely starts to forget words and then more. When her doctor diagnoses her with early-onset Alzheimer’s Disease, Alice and her family’s lives face a harrowing challenge as this terminal degenerative neurological ailment slowly progresses to an inevitable conclusion they all dread. Along the way, Alice struggles to not only fight the inner decay, but make the most of her remaining time.

JULY 20, GOOD WILL HUNTING

Will Hunting has a genius-level IQ and works as a janitor at MIT. When he solves a difficult graduate-level math problem, his talents are discovered by Professor Gerald Lambeau, who decides to help the misguided youth reach his potential. When Will is arrested for attacking a police officer, Professor Lambeau makes a deal to get leniency for him if he will get treatment from therapist Sean Maguire.

JULY 27, INSIDE OUT

Growing up can be a bumpy road, and it’s no exception for Riley, who is uprooted from her Midwest life when her father starts a new job in San Francisco. Like all of us, Riley is guided by her emotions – Joy, Fear, Anger, Disgust, and Sadness. The emotions live in Headquarters, the control center inside Riley’s mind, where they help advise her through everyday life. As Riley and her emotions struggle to adjust to a new life in San Francisco, turmoil ensues in Headquarters. Although Joy, Riley’s main and most important emotion, tries to keep things positive, the emotions conflict on how best to navigate a new city, house, and school.

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