My life's Adventure

Some facts from Tom Burns

I am reading Tom Burns' Community Mental Health Teams: A Guide to Current
Practices (Oxford, UK: Oxford, 2004)

Tom Burns spent 10 years managing a generic community treatment team then 10
years managing an ACT team. He is a professor at Oxford University.

I spent the last four hours reading a few books and got chapter one of Tom
Burns book read. Here are some facts from chapter one to share with you.

Beside meds contributing to deinstitutionalisation also the welfare state
(i.e money to live outside the hospital) and various other societal
developments such as human rights have contributed to community living. Also
professional developments and the therapeutic community movement played a
role. Unlocked wards were developed in Britian in the late 1940's although
some these days in the early 2000's are going back to locked wards.

Italy outlawed mental health hospitals in 1978. Replaced them with community
health care teams.

It really goes in waves and each time we think we have the ideal thing.
Victorian hospitals were great in their day. Unshackling the insane was a
big move way back when. ECT was great in its day.

He pokes open and deepens my understanding of mental illness.

Posted by petert at July 26, 2005 02:33 AM