Experiences of early Community Care

In the audio and written extracts below, carers, former nurses and social workers who took part in the Hidden Memories oral history project recount their own memories of the impact of the introduction to community care practices, after the introduction of the National Health Service and Community Care Act 1990.

These audio and written extracts include meaningful aspects of care of the old system of mental hospitals, which were perceived to be lost in the current system of mental health care. Others highlight the benefit of the fully-funded rehabilitation services available in the early 1990s and their demise following the gradual reduction in budgets for mental health care in the last 30 years.

If you would like to share your memories, get in touch.

MariaPaola Ditch

MariaPaola trained as a student nurse at Saxondale hospital 3 years before closure (1985-1988). She went on to work as a nurse at the new inpatient acute wards at the Queens Medical Centre that replaced the mental hospitals. In this audio extract, she talks about the benefits of care in the community but also what has been lost with the closure of Saxondale hospital. 

Joe Pidgeon

Joe trained as a social worker and came to work in Nottingham in the mid-1980s to join the Rehabilitation and Community Care Service (RCCS), responsible for closing down the mental hospitals and rehabilitate people in the community. In this interview extract, Joe recounts some of the benefits of the old system in mental hospitals and what has been lost since the early years of community care due to budget cuts.  

Judith Machin

Judith’s son developed severe mental health problems in 1991, at the start of community care. In this short clip, Judith remembers her early experiences of mental health care services in the 1990s as a carer for her son. Judith and her husband campaigned to save local mental health services and have been actively involved in the running of Middle Street Resource Centre – a former day centre run by Social Services, which is now run by people with lived experience and their allies.

“The big difference for me with the hospital closure is that we’ve lost all this investment in psychiatry, all the infrastructure. All the staff and support with the kitchens, the gardens, the farms were all attached to the psychiatric hospital, along with nursing and medical staff, the cleaners and everybody else, all that seemed to disappear as the psychiatric hospitals were reduced or closed and somehow you sort of got a slimmed down service. There was a reduction of long-stay beds for treatment and intervention.

Some people do need safe environments for very severe depression and psychosis, they need a place where they can be supported to get through that, trying to manage it just in the community you often hear of tragedies so I think you do need that kind of residential therapeutic environment for intensive treatment.”

Trainee nurse at Mapperley hospital in the late 1960s who went on to become a psychologist

“When old hospitals started to discharge patients the only thing that was done was to get rid of the beds. It was always seen that they would rely on the hospital, but only Monday to Friday. The weekend they would be wandering the streets of Nottingham, there was no structure in place.”

Nurse who worked at Mapperley Hospital from 1979 until its closure. 

Graham Machin

Graham has been a carer for his son, who has a serious long-term mental health condition, since 1991. Graham was also the Chairman of Middle Street Resource Centre, Beeston, until recently. Graham’s wife, Judith, set up the Carer’s Council in 1995. In this interview extract, he recounts how resources in mental health services have gradually been withdrawn in the last 30 years since the advent of Community Care. 

Mark Holmes

Mark trained as a nurse at St Luke's hospital in Huddersfield in 1991. He got a job as a mental health nurse at the Queens Medical Centre in Nottingham in 1994. In this interview extract, he reflects on what has been lost and gained by moving to care in the community, highlighting the lack of support for people that are vulnerable. 

Christine Millburn

Christine trained as a mental health nurse in the early 1980s. After qualifying, she joined the Rehabilitation and Community Care Service (RCCS) in Nottingham that developed community care, which became a national demonstration centre. In this interview extract she reflects on what has been lost in community care today.