Limit search to available items
Book Cover
E-book
Author Hilton, Claire (Psychiatrist), author.

Title Civilian lunatic asylums during the First World War : a study of austerity on London's fringe / Claire Hilton
Published Cham : Palgrave Macmillan, 2021
Online access available from:
SpringerOpen books    View Resource Record  

Copies

Description 1 online resource
Series Mental Health in Historical Perspective, 2634-6036
Mental health in historical perspective, 2634-6036
Contents 1. Introduction: civilians, lunacy and the First World War -- 2. Infrastructure: rules, walls, obstacles and opportunities -- 3. Certified insane: concepts and practices -- 4. Personnel: staffing the asylums and serving the Colours -- 5. Food, farm and fuel: an inequitable supply chain -- 6. Patients and their daily life -- 7. Difficult diseases: tuberculosis and other infections -- 8. Accidents, injuries, escapes and suicides -- 9. Shackles and chains: some concluding thoughts
Summary This open access book explores the history of asylums and their civilian patients during the First World War, focusing on the effects of wartime austerity and deprivation on the provision of care. While a substantial body of literature on shell shock exists, this study uncovers the mental wellbeing of civilians during the war. It provides the first comprehensive account of wartime asylums in London, challenging the commonly held view that changes in psychiatric care for civilians post-war were linked mainly to soldiers' experiences and treatment. Drawing extensively on archival and published sources, this book examines the impact of medical, scientific, political, cultural and social change on civilian asylums. It compares four asylums in London, each distinct in terms of their priorities and the diversity of their patients. Revealing the histories of the 100,000 civilian patients who were institutionalised during the First World War, this book offers new insights into decision-making and prioritisation of healthcare in times of austerity, and the myriad factors which inform this
Analysis Social History
History of Medicine
History of Britain and Ireland
Psychiatry
Shell shock
Soldiers
Madness
Welfare austerity
Institutional care
Hospitals
Patient experiences
Napsbury
Colney Hatch
Claybury
Hanwell
Standards of care
Open Access
Social & cultural history
European history
Notes Print version record
Subject Psychiatric hospital care -- England -- London -- History -- 20th century
Psychiatric hospitals -- England -- London -- History -- 20th century
World War, 1914-1918 -- Health aspects -- England -- London
War -- Health aspects
Psychiatric hospital care
Psychiatric hospitals
England -- London
Genre/Form History
Form Electronic book
ISBN 9783030548711
3030548716