A Chat with Charlotte Armitage, Psychologist at Cast Care Clinic: A Company Providing Psychological Care to The TV and Film Industry

We are a psychological care clinic dedicated to providing psychological duty of care support to the Film and TV industry.

The company was founded by myself, a psychologist and psychotherapist and Consultant Psychiatrist, Dr. Mo Qadri, to provide pre-production, production, and post-production support to broadcasters, production companies, and on-screen contributors. We offer a full range of psychological services to safeguard the welfare of everyone involved in production for the film and TV industry.
 
 

 

How did you come up with the idea for the company?

 
I have worked in the Film and TV industry for many years, and in the last few years have been providing psychological duty of care support to several production companies on productions for broadcast with MTV and Netflix. I am also a member of the British Psychological Society’s Media Ethics Board and am currently involved in developing guidance relating to duty of care support for production companies and also for psychologists who may want to work in the field.

Dr. Qadri and I have a shared passion for mental health and ensuring that people are provided with appropriate mental health support in any given situation. We met working in the NHS and realised that our complementary skill set could be of real help in the film & TV industry at this time.

With the recent changes in requirements surrounding duty of care as stipulated by the Ofcom broadcast code, production companies need support and advice to implement appropriate and robust support for their teams and on-screen contributors. The combination of our complementary professions in psychology, psychiatry and psychotherapy, in addition to our joint experience, offers a unique insight into contributor care which enables us to offer a supportive service that will facilitate the delivery of Ofcom compliant psychological health care within the production process.
 

How has the company evolved during the pandemic?

 
As with most businesses, we’ve been able to do the majority of our work via zoom, including liaising with production companies, hosting workshops for media organisations, conducting psychological risk assessments, therapeutic sessions and consultations with people from across the country and the world.

We’ll continue to operate a hybrid model of working that combines working online and face to face meetings when it is safe to do so and as they are required.
 

What can we hope to see from Cast Care Clinic in the future?

 
We’re delighted to be working with a number of production companies on a range of productions with varying formats. We’re also working with national broadcasters and production companies to provide insight into contributor care and what the requirements are. There are a lot of questions around contributor care still and we are happy to answer them. These sessions, are a positive step for the industry and shows the changing attitudes and prioritisation of psychological support for on and off-screen talent.

Dr Qadri and I have recently secured a publishing deal to write a series of books aimed at educating various sectors on the benefits of applying psychodynamic principles in practice.

We also hope to widen the conversation and understanding around the psychodynamic modality and how this can be applied in everyday life with the launch of our upcoming podcast; ‘A Dose of MoCha’.