Actor‘mans Up’to film mental health documentary
Airdrie actor Scott Stewart is doing his bit to tackle stigmas associated with mental health by shooting a documentary on the subject.
The 23-year-old’s‘man Up’project involves interviewing people on the street to get their opinions on men who suffer from mental health issues.
The six-part documentary also sees Scott speak with two people who have suffered from depression and counselling coaches who deal with those going through troubling periods in their lives.
Scott, from the Burnfoot area of Airdrie, told the Ticket:“i wanted to take this project on because it is evident that men do not open up enough about problems, either big or small.
“If they are just putting it down to having a bad day and suppressing their feelings, that can lead to depression or even greater extremes like suicide.
“The documentary will be called ‘Man Up’, using the derogatory term society often uses, but in the correct way as it takes a real man to admit when he has a problem and to seek the help required.
“Being a‘man’these days seems like it did back when cave men were about and I want to try and get away from those beliefs.”
Scott added:“the project involves interviewing people on the street to get their general opinions, where and who they would turn to and what knowledge they have on websites and numbers to call for help.
“The main point I want to get across is the fact that suicide in men is so high; statistically 79 per cent of suicides in the UK are male.
“This could be caused by a number of reasons, but the main one being that men don’t want to appear weak, so don’t talk about their problems.”
Scott is still shooting‘man Up’and will release each episode on Facebook, with a later Youtube launch for the complete six-part series in the pipeline.
He said:“i am about half-way through the documentary. Each episode will be about five to six minutes long and I am looking to release the first episode in early July.
“It will first be released via my Facebook page and after each episode has been released there, it will then be available on its own Youtube channel.”
To view‘man Up’upon each episode’s release, visit www. facebook.com/ Scott-stewart-664578350317392/