LOS ANGELES, CA (February 18, 2016) – The La CLAve film, part of a comprehensive outreach campaign on serious mental illness, has been awarded a Gold CINDY (Cinema in Industry) Award and the 2015 Robert Townsend Social Issues Award. CINDY awards are presented to individuals and groups who have produced programming that achieves the highest levels of excellence in production value and message effectiveness. The Robert Townsend Social Issues Award is a Special CINDY award that recognizes programming identifying serious social issues of inequality or people and programs finding solutions to these problems.
La CLAve is a pilot mental health outreach campaign managed by the University of Southern California (USC) to help Spanish-speaking Latinos living in San Fernando, Sylmar, Pacoima, Panorama, North Hills, and Sun Valley, identify the signs of serious mental illness and promptly seek professional care.
The 17-minute dramatic short film that was taped in San Fernando, in both English and Spanish, was produced by Steven Lopez & Doe Mayer, written by Josefina Lopez and directed by Patricia Cardoso. The film helps raise awareness of serious mental illness among Latinos.
“We are honored to be recognized with the Gold CINDY and Robert Townsend Social Issues Award,” said Dr. Steven R. Lopez, Director of the La CLAve project and Professor of Psychology and Social Work at USC. “The short film allowed us to introduce what for some may be a sensitive subject as well as highlighting the emotional struggles in identifying and obtaining care for serious mental illness.”
La CLAve is a mnemonic device in Spanish to aid the retention on how to detect the following symptoms of psychosis:
C False beliefs or delusions/Creencias falsas o ideas delirantes
L Disorganized speech/Lenguaje desorganizado
A Hallucinations/Alucinaciones
Two examples of hallucinations are the following:
V Seeing things that others do not see/Ver cosas que otros no ven
E Hearing sounds or voices others do not hear/Escuchar sonidos o voces que otros no escuchan
La CLAve’s short film also received the Award of Merit Special Mention for Short Film presented at the Best Shorts Competition event. For more information about the La CLAve campaign visit www.UseLaClAve.com.
