ISOBAR team wins Best Film Award

A film produced by the ISOBAR project team at Warwick Medical School has won the Best Film Award at the annual conference of the Global Alliance for Chronic Diseases (GACD). 

ISOBAR (Implementing Early Mental & Physical Health Detection & Support: Promoting a Whole-School Approach to Health and Well-being) is a UKRI-funded project implementing and evaluating school mental health strategies across two sites in India and one in Nigeria.

The team worked with Neeru Khera of The Creative Gypsy and ISOBAR partners to create an animation film, ‘Hold My Hand'. The film has been piloted in schools in India, where it received positive feedback from students. It won the coveted GACD Best Film Award, standing out among 19 entries from across the world.

The film follows the life of Rhea, a young girl who encounters emotional difficulties. Rhea is teased by her peers, feels overwhelmed, anxious about school and, as a result, develops negative and distorted thoughts about herself. Rhea’s low school attendance, alongside her loss of appetite and irritability make her parents worry that someone has ‘cast an evil eye’. She begins to withdraw from everyone. A teacher notices these changes, notifies her parents and arranges support from a counsellor, who supports her in her journey to feeling loved and feeling like herself again.

Watch the film below and find out more about ISOBAR here.