A FILM has been launched which highlights the improvements that have come about in the last 50 years for people living with learning disabilities.

To celebrate their 50th anniversary Carlisle Mencap commissioned Carlisle Youth Zone and Eden Films to create a film telling the story of how the lives of people with learning disabilities has changed in the last half a century.

The short clip - which is about five minutes long - starts with a scene in Dovenby Hall in the 1960s, which shows what life was like when people with learning disabilities were sent to hospitals and treated like those with mental health problems.

These ‘hospitals’ of which Dovenby Hall in Cockermouth was one, were described by users as something resembling a prison.

Among those in attendance at the launch of the new film titled Our Lives Now and Then was Mayor of Carlisle, Jessica Riddle.

Mrs Riddle was part of the advocacy team that helped to move patients from Dovenby Hall and into assisted living in the community and said: “The worry I had was the amount of support that the residents would get in the community.

“The residents needed a lot of support in the community, which is expensive to provide.”

Cllr Riddle continued: “It was easy to say they are going to be moved out of the institution, but they needed a lot of support.”

The second scene covers the period following the days of Dovenby Hall, which saw those with learning disabilities in accommodation which was larger and not a hospital. It then moved to the present day, showing that those with learning disabilities now live in their own home.

Two sentences - one at the start and one at the end - poignantly summed up the story:

“We lived in a hospital.”

“Now we live in a house just like you.”

Two props were used to tell the story, a grey and tired Dovenby Hall and a bus that resembled the escape from Dovenby Hall.

Green screens and CGI were then used to insert the actors from Carlisle Youth Zone into the props, which were also made by the youth zone.

Carlisle Mencap chairwoman Christine Bowditch said: “I hope this project raises awareness of the lives that people with learning disabilities lived and how their lives have changed and looks at the history of people with learning disabilities in the local community.

“It is everything we hoped for.”

Even in the recent past though, life for people with learning disabilities has not been easy.

“I have had people bullying me, I have been called different names”, explained 41-year-old Sean Mackay of Brampton, who is a member of Carlisle Mencap and was involved in making the film.

“They have called me names that make me sad.

“I don’t like it, having names being pushed in my face.”

Youth Zone arts coordinator Mark Gibbs introduced the film, describing it as “great”.

“It was nice to be able to spread inclusion,” he said.

“It was lovely to do a project that involved different art forms to challenge our group.”

Chief executive of Carlisle Mencap, Sheila Gregory, described the film as “inspiring”.

She said: “It was very moving. It is a professional film, we wanted our story to be put across in a professional way.

“Our (the history of people with learning disabilities) history tends not to be voiced. People with learning disabilities don’t always have a voice, so we wanted to give them one.

“It is people who don’t have learning disabilities, their take on our history.”