Exploring how care has changed in mental health

In 2015 I began to collect the oral histories of people who gave and received care at the Nottingham mental hospitals from the 1950s until the mid-1990s, 30 years since their closure. The content of the oral histories formed part of my doctoral degree, which aimed to explore the changing dimension of mental health care from the mental hospitals to community care.

The oral histories highlight some aspects of the old system of care as outmoded and best left to the past, such as patients being housed in dormitories. However, the oral histories also highlighted that the environment of the mental hospitals was more therapeutic when compared to the care provided in acute units today. For instance, patients were allowed to move freely around the wards and the extensive grounds. They could also visit the nearby shops outside the hospital, which is no longer possible under the current system of acute care. Ex-patients and staff recalled the importance of having access to rehabilitation and recreational activities during periods of convalescence. 

Mapperley Hospital Flower show, 1967.

People using mental health services today feel neglected in the current system, where it is very hard to access a bed in a hospital, whereas it was possible to admit oneself in the old system during a period of crisis. The oral histories evidenced the long tradition of innovation in mental health care in Nottingham from the post-war period onwards. You can find out more about the innovation in mental health care in Nottingham here.

In the next few weeks, we will be sharing audio clips from the oral histories that we have collected as part of this project. Watch this space.

By working in collaboration with ex-patients and retired staff of the Nottingham mental hospitals, I learned about the importance of creating a critical space for people so they could be honest about aspects of the old system of care including talking about their concerns about the current system of care. The voices of ordinary people who gave and received care in the Nottingham mental hospitals have the power to help historians, policymakers, and practitioners in mental health rediscover aspects of care that were perceived to be helpful, which have been lost with the move to care in the community. 

The ex-patients, retired staff, and others who were involved in my research expressed a need to document community care in Nottingham following the Community Care Act of 1990. This website is the result of more oral history and local heritage research conducted by myself and a group of students from Nottingham Trent University.

You can find out more about the project here.

You can follow the project on twitter: @HealthMemories.

Have you got memories of the transition from asylum to community care in the 1990s in Nottingham that you would like to share?

If so, get in touch; email: Verusca.calabria@ntu.ac.uk or call  0115 8482053.  

Verusca Calabria is an oral historian and a Research Fellow at Nottingham Trent University.