Who Do You Think You Are?: May 7

Puberty Blues actress Susie Porter is tomorrow night’s subject on Who Do You Think You Are? in an episode marked by heartache and self-discovery.

Susie’s grandmother Gloria was institutionalised for six years in the Callan Park Mental Hospital in Sydney.

Susie is horrified to learn of the conditions there, but in a heart-warming twist finds out how her grandfather John stood by his wife and successfully petitioned to get her out.

In Gloria’s medical files, Susie uncovers a heartbreaking family secret. Her great grandmother Winifred also spent time in a mental hospital, dying in Ballarat Mental Hospital 31 years after she was admitted.

Winifred’s incarceration and the bleak hospital conditions are a grim reminder to Susie of how far treatment of mental health has come in just two generations.

Susie also delves deeper into her family past and looks back further to another generation to learn about Winifred’s parents and discovers a feisty soul in the form of her great, great grandmother Eliza.

Tuesday, 7 May at 7.30pm SBS ONE