More Than 100 NHS Staff Join Online TRAUMALITY Screening

On Wednesday 9 September, more than 100 NHS staff joined an online screening of TRAUMALITY, followed by a live discussion exploring how film can help create conversations, influence practice and contribute to wider systems change.

The screening was organised by Georgina Beadon Ekers, Senior Psychotherapist and Lead for the South East Essex Trauma Alliance, and founder of the national Trauma Informed Systems Community of Practice.

It also marked the second TRAUMALITY screening within an NHS setting, following the recent screening at the Tavistock Centre in London.

For me, that feels particularly significant.

TRAUMALITY raises questions about how we understand mental health, distress and the experiences that can sit beneath symptoms. Those conversations matter everywhere, but there is something especially important about having them within the NHS, alongside the people working directly within mental health services and the systems responsible for supporting millions of people.

The film explores the relationship between trauma, adversity, attachment, the nervous system and many of the symptoms that can later become diagnosed as mental disorders. But awareness was never meant to be the end point.

The bigger question has always been: what now?

What happens when we begin taking this knowledge into the very systems where people seek help?

From understanding trauma to changing systems

Following the screening, Georgina and I spoke about the potential of film to create change.

One of the things I have become increasingly interested in since releasing TRAUMALITY is how we get these conversations beyond people who already understand trauma.

How do we get the film into the hands of commissioners, NHS leaders, policymakers and other decision makers who have the ability to influence the structures surrounding mental health care?

This is why screenings within NHS settings matter so much to me.

It is one thing for somebody to watch TRAUMALITY at home and reconsider their own experiences. It is another for practitioners, service leaders and people working within healthcare to watch it together and then ask what its ideas might mean for the way services are designed and delivered.

Trauma-informed change cannot rely solely on individual practitioners working differently.

It also requires us to look at the systems they are working within.

That means asking whether services are designed around safety, relationships, context and curiosity. It means asking whether we understand what may have happened in somebody's life before focusing only on what symptoms they present with. And it means creating environments that recognise the impact of trauma not only on the people accessing services, but on the professionals working inside those systems too.

“Deeply moving, both personally and professionally”

Reflecting on the screening afterwards, Georgina described TRAUMALITY as “deeply moving, both personally and professionally.”

She also spoke about the sense of relief she felt seeing many of the concerns, hopes, ambitions and values already being discussed within the Community of Practice reflected so clearly within the film.

I believe TRAUMALITY can have a significant impact on the public, practitioners and policymakers.

Georgina expressed her hope that the film can contribute to the political conversations needed to advance trauma-informed approaches across England.

That really matters to me.

TRAUMALITY was never made to tell professionals that they are doing everything wrong. Many people working across the NHS already understand these issues deeply and have spent years pushing for change, often from within systems that can make that change incredibly difficult.

What the film can potentially do is give those conversations another vehicle.

A film can bring lived experience, clinical knowledge, research and human stories into the same room. It can communicate ideas emotionally as well as intellectually. And sometimes that creates a different kind of conversation from the one produced by another report, presentation or policy document.

Getting TRAUMALITY in front of decision makers

This was one of the central themes of our discussion following the screening.

If we want trauma-informed care to become more than pockets of excellent practice, the conversation has to reach the people making decisions about how services are designed, commissioned and funded.

That is where I would love TRAUMALITY to play a role.

Not as the answer.

Not as a training programme.

But as a catalyst.

Something that can bring people together, create a shared starting point and open up difficult but necessary conversations about how we understand distress and how our systems respond to it.

To now have had two NHS screenings in the space of a week feels like an important step in that journey.

More than 100 NHS staff coming together for this latest screening, watching the film and then discussing how its message might reach decision makers is exactly the kind of conversation I hoped TRAUMALITY could help create.

Thank you to Georgina for making the screening happen, to the national Trauma Informed Systems Community of Practice, and to everyone who joined us.

The question now is how we keep moving these conversations forward, and how we make sure they reach the places where meaningful systemic change can actually happen.