Quote SaintsFan="SaintsFan"If you think those suffering with mental health problems were better looked after in the old asylum system then I would ask whether you have ever worked in one? I did. In Carlisle. While care in the community was a disaster in some ways, the asylum system was already a disaster in many more ways. My boss, the unit manager at Garlands Hospital, had to regularly rotate his nursing and auxiliary staff in order to avoid abuse because getting people who actually CARED about those they were paid to look after was very, very difficult. There were indeed some very devoted nurses in that unit who worked very hard to make life comfortable for those who were often extremely challenging as a result of their illnesses, but they were not the majority of staff. And the conditions in which clients lived were far from comfortable even though, in the case of Carlisle, they were surrounded by lovely countryside and still pretty much outside the city walls (which is where many asylums were built - out of sight; out of mind). There was much wrong with the asylum system. Some wasn't fixed by care in the community and indeed new problems were added, but retaining the asylum system for all mental health sufferers was most definitely not the way to go.'"
As I said it was a flawed system but it was showing light coming from the days of medicated and many other deeper and disturbing controls, however the wholesale plunder of every valuable asset to be cloaked under the guise of CiC is still by far any away the biggest reason I have to hate the woman, hate virtually everything she stood for, and deride those who went along with her for the financial gains available, then and subsequently, regardless of whatever colour of politics are supposedly adhered to. Yes this comes from personal experience both within and outside the asylum system of that period.
