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Extract from the Postscript (1995) to David H Clark's book The Story of a Mental Hospital:-

"I have told this tale primarily to record and celebrate the great days of Fulbourn Hospital, an Open Door hospital for 30 years, which developed Social Therapy, Therapeutic Communities and Rehabilitation and was a centre of national and international reputation.

"Much has happened since 1983. The number of people in mental hospitals over Britain has continued to decline. The attitudes of Margaret Thatcher, of denigrating public service, of running down public hospitals, building up private enterprise, and of mean-minded economising have filtered down through the NHS bureaucracy. ..... Battered by public enquiries and outcries, pressured by harrassed Ministers, [the administrators and managers] have reverted to the kind of administrative behaviour that marked the worst of the asylum days - issuing memoranda forbidding activities, putting up warning notices, setting up disciplinary enquiries and penalising staff who take risks or show initiative. Staff have learned to be cautious, to get everything in writing, to avoid initiative. .....

"The Cambridge psychiatrists too have mostly retreated from Social Therapy. Many of them prefer working in the general hospital ..... When ..... a locked unit at Fulbourn [was proposed] they agreed and it was built in 1994 on the old playing field. Euphemistically entitled the 'Intensive Therapy Unit', it is ringed with flood-lit high fences and firmly locked, thus ending Fulbourn's years - over 30 - as an Open Door Hospital."

In this context renewed emphasis on social psychiatry is required in the development of community mental health services.

If you are interested in community and social psychiatry please let me know

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