Retelling North Wales' myths and legends: National Health Service Development To The Demise of North Wales Lunatic Asylum

Denbigh Hospital 1948

N.H.S - National Health Service

Combining the health services was expected to achieve equal status between mental and general hospitals; therefore psychiatry was to be a specialism like all others within the wider medical profession. Accordingly, the dedicated development of new treatments was also influencing the focus upon this area of medicine.

The Second Annual Report 1st January, 1950 - 31st December, 1950

(Extracts)

Treatment of Mental Illness

The treatment of mental illness divides itself into the following categories:-

1. Measures directed to improving the patient's general health.

2. Measures directed to re-educating the patient. These include advice, psycho-therapy, occupational therapy and, upon discharge, help in rehabilitation.

3. Special Methods of treatment of which the following are the most important in use at this Hospital:

1. Electric Convulsive Therapy - This is applied by passing an electric current through the brain.

2. Insulin - In this treatment, shock is produced by the administration of insulin in high doses. A modified technique utilizing lower doses also proves beneficial.

3. Prolonged Narcosis - In this, the patient is kept asleep almost continuously for a period of up to 14 days.

4. Prefontal Leucotomy - This is a surgical procedure whereby nerve fibres passing from the frontal lobes to other parts of the brain are divided.

5. Treatment of General Paralysis of the Insane - The following methods are in use:-

a. Inoculation with Malaria

b. Penicillin

c. Specific antisyphylitic drugs

Commentary - As Leucotomy is only performed on cases which have not responded to other forms of treatment and in which the outlook without operation is regarded as hopeless, the results shown are regarded as satisfactory. However it is realised that the figures are inadequate insofar as they give no information as to the mental status of those patients who have been discharged. It is therefore proposed that during the coming year to have each discharged patient visited by a social worker with a view to estimating his or her capacity to fit into society.

Outpatient's clinics were established, along with new therapies, and a recruiting drive to persuade 'more young people to join this (Denbigh) modern hospital, in a pioneering branch of modern medicine.'

In 1960 an article claimed, 'Psychiatry has changed the whole outlook of hospitals such as this; it is the spearhead of medical advance.'

CLOSURE

The Desertion To Disintegration of a Lunatic Asylum

Attitudes, policies and the nature of patient problems changed throughout the following decades and participated in the closure of the 'Denbigh Lunatic Asylum.'

From 'Care and Treatment of the Mentally Ill in North Wales 1800-2000’ by Pamela Michael

Late Spring 1995

'Amongst the last activities to finish was occupational therapy. The workrooms remained in use to the end, and the gardens and greenhouses, always so popular with some of the patients. During the late spring of 1995 tomato plants were on sale, and flowers were still being cut that last summer. A sense of finality loomed as the corridors became emptier, and staff numbers dwindled. The kitchens continued to provide meals for the remaining patients and staff, but the number of dishes became fewer and fewer. When the ceiling fell in on the canteen, fortunately without causing injury, it somehow seemed to many remaining staff symbolic of the hospital's final demise.'

'Until the last days of operation the women at the reception desk continued to take telephone calls from families anxiously seeking advice on whom to contact for assistance for distressed and sick relatives.'

'Thieves stole the historic clock, donated by Mrs Ablett, formerly of Llanbedr Hall North Wales, in memory of her husband, and all the brass door handles and fixtures disappeared. The hospital that was once overcrowded and had insufficient room for all the beds required now lies empty and deserted.'

The following photography is by Alison Goulbourne: