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THE EIGHTH ISSUE OF FIHRM-AP - Aung Mental Health Initiative: A Window to A long Rooted Complex Trauma in Myanmar

About the author: Aung Min

Aung Min, born 1964 in Yangon, represents one of the most complex personalities of the recent Yangon art scene. Graduated from Institute of Medicine 1, Yangon in 1990 and served as a medical doctor up until 2018; first in Irrawaddy delta region and later in Yangon. In 1999, he published his first novel ‘Dreadful Night’ and ‘I Came to this Small Town with a Duty’ in 2004. Myanmar Contemporary Art part 1 was published in 2010. He was introduced to filmmaking and script writing in 2007 when FAMU (Academy of Performing Arts in Prague) held a workshop in Yangon. His first documentary ‘The Clinic’ came out in 2010 which is based on his life as a medical practitioner working in the outskirts of Yangon. In 2012, he developed the script for the ‘The Monk (2014)’. Dr. Aung Min is also the co-founder of Aung MHI along with his coworker and wife psychiatrist Dr. San San Oo.

 

About Aung Mental Health Initiative (Aung MHI)

Aung Clinic, located in Yangon, transformed into the Aung Mental Health Initiative to apply therapeutic methods to support and help patients suffering from psychological problems. Aung MHI holds meal gatherings every week and has held the 'No Trauma No Art' exhibition every year since 2019.


Aung Mental Health Initiative: A Window to A long Rooted Complex Trauma in Myanmar

Aung Clinic and General Health Problem in Yangon

Aung Clinic before becoming Aung Mental Health Initiative was established in 2000, in one of the suburbs of Yangon, North-Dagon. North-Dagon was then a district created for civil servants who worked under the military dictators. The district was built out of the farmlands which were filled with waterlogged, dark and crime ridden streets. Those who dwell in the impoverished neighborhood are laborers and the poor. The district is ridden with neurosis, addiction problems in addition to general health problems that come with poverty. It was one of the darkest and depressing times in Myanmar.

Group drawing in Aung MHI (The Room) 2023 Participants: Dr Aung Min, Eliza, Baboo Daung, Soe Win Lwin, Aaron, Nyo Min Win, Ni Ni Mar, Yan Lin Phyo, Myo Thura Aung

Group drawing in Aung MHI (The Room) 2023 Participants: Dr Aung Min, Eliza, Baboo Daung, Soe Win Lwin, Aaron, Nyo Min Win, Ni Ni Mar, Yan Lin Phyo, Myo Thura Aung

Alternative and Inclusive Therapeutic Methods at Aung Clinic

Aung clinic was established by two doctors, psychiatrist Dr. San San Oo and general practitioner Dr. Aung Min. In 2010, Dr. San San Oo left Yangon Mental Health hospital. Yangon Mental Health hospital is the real life depiction of Anton Chekhov’s Ward Number Six, iron chains, solitary confinements, abuses and unregulated ECT treatments are common. Dr. San San Oo started approaching alternative and inclusive methods at Aung clinic.

More and more mental health patients started to come to Aung clinic and among them the severe lifelong cases. With the country opening up in 2012 with the release of Aung San Su Kyi, Dr. San San Oo was allowed to attend international mental health workshops and started practicing Mental Health Psychosocial Support (MHPSS) practices at Aung clinic. It was around that time in 2015, Aung clinic was slowly transformed into Aung Mental Health Initiative (Aung MHI); focusing on severe mental health participants and the Room where participants can paint without discrimination or prejudice was established.

The beginning of Aung MHI in 2016, painting session Participants: Dr Aung Min, Eliza, Kyaw Khaing

The beginning of Aung MHI in 2016, painting session Participants: Dr Aung Min, Eliza, Kyaw Khaing

In Aung MHI, Community kitchen takes place every Monday from 10am to 12pm followed by a painting session. Participants: Eliza, Baboo Daung, Soe Win Lwin, Aaron, Nyo Min Win

In Aung MHI, Community kitchen takes place every Monday from 10am to 12pm followed by a painting session. Participants: Eliza, Baboo Daung, Soe Win Lwin, Aaron, Nyo Min Win

Aung MHI participants and TEN MEN crews working together at 2024 exhibition “No Trauma No Art”, filming of Yangon Midnight, a film currently developed by TEN MEN.

Aung MHI participants and TEN MEN crews working together at 2024 exhibition “No Trauma No Art”, filming of Yangon Midnight, a film currently developed by TEN MEN.

Alongside Dr. San San Oo, her coworker Dr. Aung Min started using art in treating psychosocial patients. The first ever works from Aung MHI were with the slogan ‘’Every human being is an artist’’, successfully turning participants with severe mental health problems into artists in their own rights. The problems that cannot be expressed are expressed through paintings. The doctors, participants paint together, cook and share meals together. Group talks were initiated and the paintings created were exhibited at the first exhibition ‘’No Trauma No Art’’ in 2019.

No Trauma No Art is a series of art exhibitions by Aung MHI, which showcase the outputs from trauma-informed care processes. The first exhibition was in 2019 and is hosted annually.

Aung MHI participants and TEN MEN crews working together at 2024 exhibition “No Trauma No Art”, filming of Yangon Midnight, a film currently developed by TEN MEN.

Aung MHI participants and TEN MEN crews working together at 2024 exhibition “No Trauma No Art”, filming of Yangon Midnight, a film currently developed by TEN MEN.

Aung MHI participants and TEN MEN crews working together at 2024 exhibition “No Trauma No Art”, filming of Yangon Midnight, a film currently developed by TEN MEN.

Aung MHI participants and TEN MEN crews working together at 2024 exhibition “No Trauma No Art”, filming of Yangon Midnight, a film currently developed by TEN MEN.

 

Filmmaker Midi Z’s involvement in Aung MHI: A Window to Mental Health Crisis in Myanmar

Filmmaker Midi Z came back to Myanmar in 2016, hoping for an opportunity in making films. His first film in Myanmar; Ice Poison (2014) has already shed light on psychological traumas and problems in the northern region of Myanmar. * Midi Z’ films use simple, effective methods and are exalted in highlighting the psychological pain of a situation. After visiting the Room and spending time with the doctors and participants, Midi Z sets out to cast a shadow that reflects a country in turmoil using a simple clinic where the doctors can be the sick themselves. The Clinic (2024) is the product of Midi Z and his crews’ patience, determination and hard work in creating a window to the mental health crisis in Myanmar.

Myanmar has been living under military dictatorship since 1962. For the people living in the country, trauma is everyday life, in addition to being exposed to complex and collective trauma. Within the family, at school, at workplace, hospitals, prisons can all be potential places that torments you. Within the ten years’ experience of Aung MHI, the people with mental health problems are compounded by traumatic conditions the country has given in addition to their own health crisis. Thus, more frequent episodes, violence, and friction with the society. Aung MHI gives psychosocial support to participants based on artistic activities. Midi Z’s the Clinic (2024) is able to capture the transition of an ordinary clinic to a safe space, transition of a county onto the screen.

“There are only two ways for you to make a fortune as someone who grew up in Shan state. You either traffic drugs or join an armed group,” said Midi Z. Midi Z’s film reflects the situation of the country very well in his film. His consistent and daring effort to step into the country in turmoil, a long rooted complex trauma situation which is rarely addressed in the country.

 

Filming as Retrospective on Oneself

Aung Min also established the independent film group TEN MEN in 2013: which assists the young filmmakers in Myanmar and produced a number of short and documentaries.

Aung MHI and TEN MEN production are both situated within the same compound. While the Room gives psychosocial care to the severe mental health patients, TEN MEN studio is where all the filmmakings happen. The aim is to combine art and healing in giving psychosocial support and achieving insights to our own problems.

The country is at the precipice and we should be able to record this era while expressing ourselves, meanwhile healing ourselves and helping out each other but we have to be very careful under this dictatorship. Expressing yourself in Myanmar is a perilous job under the dictator’s oppression and blackout restrictions.

To me, filmmaking is writing, it is writing with a camera.