One of our aims for this website is to trace the changes in mental health care over time. Changes were usually introduced with an improvement of patient care in mind. Do you think this has always been achieved?
Devon County Mental Hospital
Social Attitudes and Mental Illness in Devon 1845-1987
I always remember the introduction of ‘normalisation’ in the 80’s within institutions, this concept would allow people with mental health problems take informed decisions even if it was not deemed a social ‘norm’.The problems I observed was that an ‘informed decision’ (on reflection) was often made by a incapacitated individual, so effectively it wasn’t informed at all. This ‘New’ concept was like a fashion statement amongst up and coming mental health workers, it ended up that incapacited individuals were given the ability to make all of their decisions irrespective of the risks to their physical or mental health.
As an example, I remember a charge nurse said to me to leave a patient in bed who had been incontinent as he had ‘chosen’ and ‘refused’ to get up.
Thank goodness for the ‘capacity’ act !!
Yes, I do believe that Mental health care has improved over time, but fundamentally ‘holistic’ care is now provided by 2 different systems ‘Healthcare’ and ‘social care’, Until the ‘grey’ and ill defined boundaries can be established and not left to subjective opinions of indivduals, we will never encapsulate the ‘holistic’ albeit institutional care we had in places like Exminster Hospital.