Title:FIELD PSYCHIATRY FOR THE MEDICAL OFFICER [Main Title]
Film Number:WOY 998
Other titles:
Summary: Instructional film using actors to explain the use of Psychiatry in the field.
Description: The film starts with a look at anxiety in civilian life before the war and then anxiety among the civilian population during war, progressing to more serious anxiety experienced in battle. We follow the experiences of Private Wragge who "cracks" after six days exposure to mortar fire. He is treated unsympathetically by his comrades and officers until he is sent to the Medical Officer. Through various discussions and short stories he explains the various types of anxiety and ways of dealing with it. These include exhaustion caused through anxiety; depression; confusion; simple anxiety (including hysterical conversions); disorientation and amnesia. Private Wragge is sent to the Corps Exhaustion Centre where over a period of six days the treatment is divided into three 48 hour sessions. In the first they are treated "like babies" with sedated sleep and decent food. In the second they are treated "like kids", relaxing, doing making and mending and playing games. They get back their self respect and a psychiatrist interviews each patient. Finally they get back into the disciplined life of a soldier before going back to their original units and to the same duties they had been performing. It is important that they are not treated differently from those who remained at the front. In a final section the Medical Officer tries to get the general message across to his operational fellow and commanding officers. The commanding officer has been taking more notice of what the M.O. thinks and prescribes rest treatment to the M.O.
