“Echoes of Trauma”

THE HELIOS APPROACH:
HOW AND WHY?

THEIR CHALLENGE

Violence against nurses had become a silent epidemic. In Windsor-Essex, front-line health care workers routinely assaulted, harassed, and mistreated while simply doing their duty.

Yet these traumatic experiences were being normalized, ignored, or dismissed as “part of the job.” The Ontario Nurses’ Association Local 8 needed to jolt the public out of its indifference.

The goal was to spark national conversation, build empathy for nurses’ lived realities, and increase institutional pressure for change.

OUR SOLUTION

Immersion was the key to broadcasting their message in the most effective, attention-grabbing way possible. We created a bold, emotionally charged video campaign featuring a series of four cinematic commercials, each portraying a different nurse’s experience with on-the-job violence.

Inspired by real incidents, the videos captured a range of traumatic scenarios with an unflinching lens — bringing raw, often unseen moments to the forefront. These weren’t just commercials; they were stories built to haunt, humanize, and demand a response.

The campaign launched across social media, television, YouTube, and cinema pre-shows — where they reportedly hit so hard, some audiences found the ads more intense than the films they preceded.

THE RESULT

The campaign reached millions of people across platforms, igniting conversation, controversy, and overdue attention. Its visceral tone sparked headlines, social sharing, and passionate debate among viewers, medical professionals, and institutions alike.

The videos were featured at the International Conference on Violence in the Health Sector, where they elevated Windsor’s local efforts to a global platform.

Most importantly, the campaign helped shatter the illusion that nurse abuse was rare or acceptable — amplifying voices that had been silenced, and reminding the public that this violence affects not only nurses, but the quality of care itself.

“No Room to Grieve” received heartfelt praise from respected figures in the film industry, affirming its emotional impact and powerful visual storytelling.

DIRECTOR’S VISION

Before collaborating with Susan Sommerdyk and ONA Local 8, I had no idea how widespread and severe the abuse of nurses really was. It’s one thing to dedicate your life to caring for others — it’s another to be verbally, emotionally, and physically assaulted in the process… and then come back to work the next day and do it all over again.

That realization became the emotional spine of this entire campaign.

Each film tackles a different layer of trauma nurses face. “Another Morning” takes a quiet, minimal approach — we follow a woman preparing for work as she covers up the bruises from the day before. There’s no dialogue. Just silence, scars, and the soft glow of sunrise — a surreal contrast meant to evoke how pain doesn’t always scream.

“Perspective of Violence” throws viewers directly into the victim’s shoes mid-incident. We used first-person camera angles and muffled sound design to replicate what it feels like to be verbally attacked by a patient — overwhelmed, trapped, alone. We wanted to make it impossible to look away.

“Real-Time Emergency” uses a single, unbroken shot to heighten realism and escalate tension in real-time. It begins with a nurse doing his job, and ends with another being assaulted. All in one take, capturing the unpredictability and urgency of violence in healthcare settings.

And finally, “No Room to Grieve” is a 5-minute short film about PTSD. It moves beyond statistics and headlines, immersing the viewer in the fractured mental state of a nurse living with trauma. Time dilates, scenes loop, and even a hot shower becomes a warzone of memory and anxiety. Built around real PTSD symptoms — depersonalization, time displacement, dissociation — this film is the emotional culmination of the entire series.

Together, these stories form a unified message: this is not part of the job. Nurses deserve better. We chose to tell these stories cinematically, viscerally, and honestly — not to shock, but to show the world the brutal reality healthcare workers face.

- Jendo Shabo, Director