The Mad and the Bad

A Nurses Story

Fiction & Literature, Psychological, Historical
Cover of the book The Mad and the Bad by George Birks, AuthorHouse UK
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: George Birks ISBN: 9781491897706
Publisher: AuthorHouse UK Publication: March 11, 2014
Imprint: AuthorHouse UK Language: English
Author: George Birks
ISBN: 9781491897706
Publisher: AuthorHouse UK
Publication: March 11, 2014
Imprint: AuthorHouse UK
Language: English

As to the staff, both nurses and doctors were treating patients with a mixture of prejudice, ill-understood physical interventions such as shock therapy (in all its forms), and sedation. We all conducted our care within the provisions of the Mental Health Acts of 1959 and 1983, but the older nurses and doctors had been trained postwar. Doctors generally expected, and got, deference from patients. They got it from nurses too, though nurses could be a two-faced lot. Maybe it was the older nurses enduring influence that made psychiatric nurses enforce compliance from their patients. But from the 1960s, protest against the big forbidding madhouses became more frequent and vociferous. By the 1980s, there was a storm of coruscating reports and bitterly convincing accounts of mistreatment. So a new NHS mental health care policy was developed: Care in the Community. The old institutions would close down, and their inhabitants would be parented, so to speak, by the social security system and visits from community-based psychiatric nurses. This was not only cheaper (it got rid of those old asylums), but it also reflected liberal views of mental disorder as something that, with love and responsibility, could be lessened, while the mentally disadvantaged would have a better quality of life. Care in the Community got rid of some of the staff too, but many carried their old behavior into new jobs. This book relates my experiences between 1969 and 1989. I would like to think that psychiatric care is better now, but I dont. I think its just different.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

As to the staff, both nurses and doctors were treating patients with a mixture of prejudice, ill-understood physical interventions such as shock therapy (in all its forms), and sedation. We all conducted our care within the provisions of the Mental Health Acts of 1959 and 1983, but the older nurses and doctors had been trained postwar. Doctors generally expected, and got, deference from patients. They got it from nurses too, though nurses could be a two-faced lot. Maybe it was the older nurses enduring influence that made psychiatric nurses enforce compliance from their patients. But from the 1960s, protest against the big forbidding madhouses became more frequent and vociferous. By the 1980s, there was a storm of coruscating reports and bitterly convincing accounts of mistreatment. So a new NHS mental health care policy was developed: Care in the Community. The old institutions would close down, and their inhabitants would be parented, so to speak, by the social security system and visits from community-based psychiatric nurses. This was not only cheaper (it got rid of those old asylums), but it also reflected liberal views of mental disorder as something that, with love and responsibility, could be lessened, while the mentally disadvantaged would have a better quality of life. Care in the Community got rid of some of the staff too, but many carried their old behavior into new jobs. This book relates my experiences between 1969 and 1989. I would like to think that psychiatric care is better now, but I dont. I think its just different.

More books from AuthorHouse UK

Cover of the book A Football Fan's Story by George Birks
Cover of the book Acupuncture in Medicine by George Birks
Cover of the book Power up with God by George Birks
Cover of the book How Great Is Your Fall? by George Birks
Cover of the book Echoes from the Chamber by George Birks
Cover of the book 18,366 Kilometres by Road by George Birks
Cover of the book The Obstinate Sons by George Birks
Cover of the book Pop up and Go by George Birks
Cover of the book Into the Heart of Reality by George Birks
Cover of the book Epilepsy by George Birks
Cover of the book Vanquish La Bête Noire by George Birks
Cover of the book A Spoon Full of Sugar by George Birks
Cover of the book Letters to the Rock by George Birks
Cover of the book Marriage Built on the Rock by George Birks
Cover of the book When God Intervenes by George Birks
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy