After The Asylums

[crookedspire]

Been reading a book called 'After the Asylums ' it charts the rise and fall of the Asylum system. By the mid 1990s most of the Asylums were history and the so called 'care in the community ' policy replaced them. No doubt the Asylums had their dark side but most were well run aside of community care were most were left to it . If you can get a copy its worth a read, what do you think of care in the community or the asylum system was it good or bad ?

[Harryarwen]

I worked in Sheffield during the 80's with adults who had a learning disability (allegedly). There were long stay units and asylums like Grenoside Hospital Thundercliffe Grange, Hollow Meadows, St Josephs Hospital at Walkley amongst others. I was a newly qualified health and social care professional and what I saw astounded me. Segregation of sexes, people who actually did not have any sort of learning disability but who had been "admitted" to these units because they had given birth to an illegitimate child. Case notes used Victorian terminology like "Cretin", "Mongol", "Imbecile", - all of which relate to definitions under the formal IQ scoring system at the time. Truly horrendous, truly abusive and truly not human. What was amazing was the Sheffield grabbed this in 1984 and became a leader in getting these people out of their abject care system, out of institutionalisation and gave them a chance for a better quality of life. In hindsight, we have gone full circle again though - the funding that is afforded to Community Care today just cannot meet everyone's identified needs. Social Care is in crisis - there is something around called the Barnet formula, s=which shows that if people keep living longer etc, then by 2024, the whole of Barnet's budget should be spent on meeting the social care needs of people within its Borough - and that's before paying for schools, bins emptying, and indeed any other aspect of Council spending. So scary and needs urgent addressing.....

[GLASGOWOODS]

Are we going full circle regarding 'care in the community,' good question. I don't think we shall ever return to big institutions, more likely to be cluster living. Small complexes with self contained flats/houses overseen by a couple of staff/tele care.