Mental hospitals -v- Care In the Community

[rickiethecat]

This is why I'm glad I'm only in my mid 30s, back in the 60s and before, people like me, ie Autistic people would've been put in places like Middlewood Loony Bin, wrongly IMO.

 

You don't think referring to it as a Loony Bin might be a bit insensitive?

[TeaFan]

Mental health problems manifest in many ways, from family crisis to aggressive street drunks.

 

For sure, Middlewood Hospital and it's ilk weren't perfect 20 years ago but mental hospitals / institutions* generally ensured that folk were within a safe environment with dedicated staff and resources.

 

Is it time for a new generation of institutions that can cater for people with modern standards of care and medicine, but away from the general public?

 

 

 

 

 

 

*I'm using common vernacular for ease of understanding - don't use it as an excuse to get pointlessly offended.

 

Why do people with mental health problems need to be away from the general public? The vast majority pose no risk to others and if they do get to that point then the Mental Health Act can be used to make them go into hospital until the risk subsides.

 

I'd challenge your assertion that people were safe in the old hospitals. Safe from abusive staff who had a lot of power over them? Safe from over-prescription of drugs, forcibly administered, on flimsy scientific 'evidence'? No, not safe from those at all. Safe from the right to live a normal life on the outside? If people choose that, why shouldn't they be allowed it?

 

I do think there needs to be more acute inpatient places in Sheffield, at the moment people have to wait too long to be admitted even if they want to go to hospital for a while which means they are usually in a worse state by the time they get admitted. But there are massive cuts underway in the NHS and if anything we'll end up with even less, which won't stop people needing a hospital environment, just more placements in expensive private hospitals when the NHS ones are full - all funded by taxpayers of course.

[Plain Talker]

teafan, I wouldn't say that it's about keeping them "away" from the public, necessarily.

 

IMO, it's more about giving the person sanctuary during the time they need a haven of sorts to get their head together away from the responsibilities and pressures of life, for as long as they are unable to cope.

 

(Maybe I'm being a bit too idealistic and utopian thinking this way, but that's how I perceive the asylums ought to be)