It's not even that long ago, I mean I was 16 in 1985. But what immediately strikes me is how wonderfully polite, well spoken and above all British, everyone and everything is. Nostalgic and touching.
Things really changed with celeb trash reality TV from the late 90s onwards, that's when sounding obnoxious and pretending to act thick for laughs became the norm.
@@joannelawrence2126 I can't cope with modern life these days. I work for my self on my own. The only people I have anything to do with these days are my wife, kids and about 4 friends that's it. Every time I walk out of my front door I wonder what nonsense I will come across. We are beyond help.
@@BillyJango you have the ideal situation, if I could, I would do exactly what you do…. It is hard to find anyone ‘normal’ these days, life was so much more laid back in those days. Good luck sir! 😊
Miss these old style docs, everything now days has to be loud and sensatiinal with a hip young reporter being loud and in everyones face.I hope everyone found happyness and peace
My job involves working with vulnerable people, there are too many who simply cannot look after themselves. They are exposed to manipulation, abuse, coercion, cuckooing. Many are taken advantage of by so-called ‘friends’ who gain their trust then begin to take money off them.
@@IngenerateIngenue well thats life.either tell em to fook off or be the fool.sorry but no one in life is here to care about any thing else but themselves.so get with the programme.LIFES TUFF.
Thank you for sharing this very touching old programme. Any decent society should take care of its vulnerable. There are more now than ever, for all sorts of reasons. I would love to think that life improved for the people on this programme, but I doubt that it did.
I had a nervous breakdown and got very physically sick while trying to work some nasty low pay wage slave sheet job 8 years ago. I havent worked since. Im also born quite physically handicapped. I was in mental hospital for 3 weeks-bipolar, major depression, ptsd, horrible insomnia. I go to groups at a mental health center. Cooking group, discussion groups, arts and craft group, crochet group. I go there 3 days a week. I also take meds but sometimes the insomnia is really bad. Im on disability and I have an apartment with a roommate cuz rent is real high. She goes to the groups and shes my friend. Sometimes I do better, sometimes I do bad, especially with the insomnia. But the groups help alot.
Gosh memories i lived in hastings from about 82 to 86 it was some of the darkest times of my life my father had just died i was living on the streets in london with mental health and drug problems i was offered a job in hastings that i lost quite quickly i ended up a full blown heroin addict working and stealing to stay normal living in besits and many of the people in this documentary i am sure i interacted with during my time there life did not get much better when i moved back to london in 86 i did a degree and as soon as i made money it just enabled me to live more dissolutely . i am 70 now i should not be alive there is so much regret in my life so many people i have hurt life just seems to have had a direction all of its own but i cannot blame anyone other than myself. I wish i had been permanently sectioned in my teens it would have saved me and many others a lot of pain.
@@ricdavid7476 I totally recommend Prof Sam Vaknin RUclips amazing insights in "Addiction" EPs. + "13 types of mentally ill family" & "Hack your mind to heal/succeed" 👍☮️😁
@Mack-w7zdid not blame his death on my woes at all I was a wanker a long time before he died I just used it to describe my condition before moving to Hastings. You are not a wanker ? If you say no I call you a liar
@Mack-w7z - whilst there might be some credence in what you say, the only "wanker" I feel is present in this exchange, is the one that looks back at you, when you glance in the mirror.
Exactly they were so vulnerable and despite being very attractive to poor people locked in institutions, was it actually caring for them ? , like hell it was to put a guest house owner in charge of people with severe mental illnesses is absolutely shameful !
I agree I had mixed thoughts on it aswell , I know it was meant well , but I think they needed Life skill courses , and lessons and job apprenticeship or voluntary roles and community groups fir leisure, physical, emotional, mental and spiritually if they desire and of their choice with guidance and some structure .
Here we go, the usual 'better in my day' rubbish. People were more polite in the past??!! Why do you think all asylums were closed by the 90s? Because people were mistreated and abused in them. There were also no proper safety measures, so 'polite' people like Jimmy saville were going around these places exploiting vulnerable people.
@@susannehall7234Yeah, it was better in the 80s when there was less security. That way Jimmy saville could go in to asylums and abuse people. And football hooligans were able to arrange fights and sing racist songs with little deterrent. Yeah, much better.
No, they weren't. People had less understanding of mental health than now, so these people were treated worse and there was no legislation to protect them. You're talking about a time where asylums were still active. These places were closed because people were dehumanised and mistreated in them. There's not much polite about that.
I’m so eager to know how these fine folks fared and if they’re still with us. I’ve been watching many of these news documentaries and I am so hopeful that many of these folks ended up having safe and happy lives.
You have a very interesting channel here. Thought provoking! Edit* they shouldnt have closed all these places, at least in the US. we have so many people with severe problems wreaking havoc upon the populace. They are not getting the level of care and supervision required out in the public.
I remember many guesthouses that accommodated people who had been in hospital for many years beforehand. I often thought there was something a little mercenary about the landlords/ladies. Interesting how much the landlady let her guests have after counting it all out and seeming to keep the rest. Thank goodness for sheltered housing and care in the community -although there's not enough of it😢 Good old Blighty. Edit: you have some great uploads😊
More insightful than much of current documentary content regarding mental health issues. Thank you for sharing. I was 14 at the time but It looks a life time away.
I find them unintentionally funny - Robert and his 5 year old injection pain when he comes out with his sarcastic "oh thanks for telling me 5 years later!!"
It was a massive mistake to empty and demolish the old psychiatric hospital, the idea of 'lunatic asylums' had come to mean a place of torture and misery but it was forgotten that asylum mean a place of safety. Now the one time would be patients are left to mostly cope alone in a society too lacking in resources and time poor to provide any real help and very often it ends up with the police having to try to deal with ill people and ultimately they end up in the prison system which is no help either them, the staff or fellow inmates.
Beautifully well made documentary that let the people involved speak for thenselves rather than relying on a constant commentary. Would love to know what happened to Martin and Cherie. I hope she did meet an older man and get her flat.
It would be lovely to hear that these people had good outcomes and that things improved but who knows. I have a schizophrenic friend and just want to do my best to help him. The meds nowadays are a bit better I think - generally psychosis and delusions can be treated well but the side effects are so numbing. We have to be positive though don't we.
I was in the shovel in 1985. A few people came onto the wing. We could tell they were not the full Monty. It was a sad affair, watching men struggle with the routine of stir. Some of the drug users would half inch their meds. Out of one institution where they had some sort of protection, into an institution where no one cared.
People may laugh at the landlady who wouldn’t allow male company in her establishment, but years ago more people had standards and I think it’s rather sweet and she was simply endearing
And witch that lady's age she would've been raised around very different standards. She said she's fine if she has a fiancee and they can meet but just no hookups and short term relationships.
Those walls were for the protection of those that lived within them. I trained in a 1,800 bed hospital, condensed down to 54 beds under the thatcher government. Prior to that shut down, everyone had an occupation, got ‘paid’ and had a purpose within the institution. Working on the farm, the kitchen, even the dental clinic. Say what you will about abuses within the ‘’asylums” but that’s a reflection of the nature of people, not only mental institutions. think jimmy saville in the bbc, the boy scouts, the Catholic Church. For the majority, the walls provided a safe and therapeutic environment for people to thrive in. That has long gone for those who benefited from it…..
I just came back from visiting London this pasted September. I was hoping it would be the same as when i first visited in 1986. I did NOT see or hear any British people in LONDON at all. Lots of foreigners and tourists (like myself) Nobody in London says, CHEERS anymore. I felt sad and felt OLD London gone!! Then the owners of the guest house where I was staying in Clapham Junction told me I might like Brighton. So I went to Brighton and sooooo glad I did. It still felt like ENGLAND and the people there were definitely more BRITISH!! That made it worth my vacation time. Next time I am visiting Yorkshire and more Northern England. Hopefully its more British there??? Peace S
Yes me too. Always good when documentaries have parts updating you ..there was one about a guy who had a sex change in the late 70s and it followed him and then her right through to the late 90s. Really interesting it was. Takes a lot of work though I guess to make these years apart updates.
@MattFisher-rf8hr I think he was unable to maybe deal with unrequited feelings. That poor man..... Only problems with these docs, is what becomes of them......
I hope that things are better in the places now. My friend was in hospital for 5 months and said it was generally fine and that people were generally nice but that it's just so BORING.
Im Australian and people used to be so polite back then like these people. Times have changed not for the better. That old lady wasn't very nice to Cherie, not fair giving the place to someone after her
@optimistnow7491 same, same... been through on the sharp end of a very animated machete threat and tears of screaming to turn off non existent music.. no help for either them or myself who was recovering from a physical attack .. I had to abandon my home In. The end . Its heartbreaking to watch this, but Interesting too... the mid 80s.. my experiences started in mid 90s..my heart does break for many.. my empathy is too much sometimes.. I feel it so deeply 😢 xxxx
God bless them all, the system then was a total joke and I live in Bridgend south Wales and just a quarter of a mile up the road from the village I live in was the parc hospital which is now the notorious parc prison and back when I was young the patients from the hospital which was a psychiatric hospital used to come into the village and they were sometimes troublesome but the majority of the time they either kept themselves to themselves or they would chat to us and they were some of the nicest people i ever met and when they closed the hospital mid eighties they put the patient's in the care in the community program which was a huge failure and it broke my heart to see the state of those people who i had known who could not cope.
Firstly you have no clue what her history was and I can assure you. The boxes may be ticked in homes now but the person's supporting people are likely as inexperienced. The type of services the people in the video would live in today would likely also be unregulated as they don't require the support in regulated activities.
Tbh I don’t think she eas rude at all she counted it in front of them and encouraged them to keep it safe she was clearly doing her best I commend her for offering her b n b for these patients , yes in this day and age it’s not the way but back then at least it got them out of the asylums
It's awful when you get paranoid delusions & intrusive thoughts. Worse is when you try to explain it to people. They don't understand, don't even want to understand. They just think you're a 'nutter' & don't want to know, so you isolate from the world. It's very lonely.
You're not a 'nutter' Dave. People with heart problems aren't called names, and so mental illness shouldn't be subjected to that either. Some people really do care you know. All the best to you.
I'm sorry to hear that, though i'm not surprised. I spend a lot of time alone and find it impossible to fit in. I spend a lot of time thinking of the past and happier times.
I remember watching a documentary many years ago when they started closing the asylums down, a gentleman 76 years old who was being interviewed in the asylum was telling how he ended up there, he was 5 years old (this could have been around the Victorian era) and playing on the street when a gentleman on a push bike picked this child up, and put in the front basket of the bike and took him to an orphanage, he ended up in an asylum later in life and spent the rest of his life there. Asylums and orphanages in Britain were private before the NHS, the more people they got the more money the government paid these places.
Chlorpromazine largactil...I did have some.of this in my cupboard kept as a curiosity , it was from 1987 or 8. I had kept it that long..I'm not sure it's not been thrown out now , which is a shame as it would have been thrown during.a clean out and at a time I had temp forgotten it's implication on the mental health scene...it was historically important I kept it as a physical reference for these kinds of discussions and as a physical artifact of those bygone times of ignorance.
Hmm my friend is on meds for schizophrenia and whilst the paranoia and delusions are upwards of 95% gone, the numbing effects and depression are quite severe. He is looking to change meds soon though so hopefully there'll be improvements. I just wish something fantastic could come along meds wise schizophrenic / bipolar and other chronically mentally ill people really really deserve it after what they've had to deal with. Even if it costs a million pounds a person take the money from somewhere I say. Take one of Beyonce's gold bath tubs.
In the early 80’s I was admitted to a unit attached to one these asylums. It was a heartbreaking place. There were elderly people there who’d been committed to these asylums as young men and women. I often wondered just how they managed in society.
They closed down Queen Charlotte Hospital in West St. Leonard's in the early 2000s, I grew up nearby and the place was always full of mentally ill patients. A friend of mine had a spell there even. Nowhere for all those disturbed people to go when they close such places, except back into society to try to cope on their own or with what little support networks they have (often none). A troubling thought.
Insightful, in ways, but also something very voyeuristic and opportunistic at the expense of these complex people about this film. But I am sure this was a pioneering view into words most viewers would not have seen before. People waxing lyrical about how polite people 'were' need to consider that a lot of these scenes will be staged or lead by producers. They also don't show the absolute horrors and traumas these people might, do and will face. It's an incredibly selective and tailored view under direction and supervision.
Council put us in one of those BNBs when I was 24 after we were made homeless..Never forget it and it was the first step on our ladder to better times!
My friends mother was apoplectic she ran a massive institution which favoured occupational health she did wonders for them. Whereas some people would give them repetitive jobs she did something that broke that mold. Purdown hospital now blackberry hill hospital a nurses training unit part of UWE Bristol. Terrible things they did the Thatcher government
And i wonder where the violent ones in Stoke Park Hospital went massive it is.. now a development multi million pound flats. I expect her friends thatcher got some monies from all these sales ie as developers . Like theyre doing in freeports in hull etc and eventually all over the country.. labour carrying it on (im not reform).. thank God they didn't get Purdown.
@@_Meng_LanThey shut down the massive 1800's asylum where I lived & put them in local shared houses ( University town so plenty of them) with a social worker visiting weekly. It was chaos. 2 yrs later they built a way smaller modern facility, attached to the local Hospital & put the violent ones there.
Its all great in principle, until someone stops taking their meds, thats often when some poor unsuspecting soul ends up getting stabbed on the high street. Governments make out its for the peoples rights, its not its always been about saving money.
Agreed very dangerous. I'm alone with a paranoid schizophrenic neighbour. He was hallucinating the other week that my flat was on fire. Bashing the door down at 7am & hollering , ignoring me when I said there was no fire or smoke. Then had the bloody fire brigade turn up & I had to go out to work. Banging the walls all night long, shouting at himself, shouting at the whole street telling us all to die. Sits on the ground outside his front door all through the early hours smoking & coughing with a yelling, keeps everyone awake. Music on a loop, all night. Called me a cunt and threatened to knock me out. He gets away with it all. All the agencies have been called & nothing has changed for 14 miserable years! Care in the community is the biggest farce that gets paid for doing nothing while the poor neighbours are not trained or paid to live like their warders at the risk to ourselves with zero protection. Appalling situation
@@oliveonthebuses1Psychiatry is a failed science and it admitted defeat with care in the community. There is no care in the community, prisons are now the replacement asylum. 😮
How it should be now. I see special needs neglect as absolutely horrific in Scotland, left with alcohol problems and the government pays money that they don't know how to spend properly and some are just added to tramps now. Very unfair as they don't have much more than the sense of a child. It's 40 years later and there are no homes,just council houses they can't furnish,keep clean or buy food to sustain themselves. The government think giving money is enough it's like giving a large amount of money to a child and telling them to self sustain. The police are their only social support and most are as kind as a lawyer. They even put them in jail and bail them into the same dysfunctional circumstances.
Whenever I watch one of these old documentaries I always wonder what happened to those that were featured. Hard to find out unless someone who knows them turns up in the comments section of their videos.
@@bruirn yes it is a pity. You wonder if they are still alive and if their lives improved. Some of them will be dead by now but what a legacy they have left. A peep into the mid 80s and the world of technology just about to take over. Makes me feel old gosh....
Is this why so many small towns today have high streets full of people with mental illnesses? Is it a legacy of this system of sending them out to boarding houses?
@@kaysmith8992 yes I agree there are even dangerous people out there on the loose and nobody seems to ensure that the mental health system is fit for purpose. The general public shouldn't be put at risk. I have witnessed several scary instances myself so I am talking from experience.
@@nicolagriffiths3933 yes I think it is still paid separately to the landlord or claimant. I think maybe in this case the landlady was playing the role of mentor/community care support worker. They could not be given the amount in full as many would have spent the whole lot in one go. It looked as though (I'm just just guessing here) it might have been a fortnight's 2 wks worth of benefit as DLA now PIP didn't exist back then. Certainly they couldn't have been trusted to pay the rent out of Universal Credit paid monthly nowadays. It was done so that the viewer got a better understanding of just how vulnerable to exploitation some of the residents were. They had to capture this on camera but I think it was all above board or otherwise the landlady would have been guilty of illegal activities instead of simply trying to teach them how to budget.
@@nicolagriffiths3933none of us know what was going on but what I witnessed with my eyes was all of the patients monies were in/ on tables/ envelopes and the landlady was going round taking the big wad from everyone and they got a big note and some change back! I bet she was raking it in LEGALLY and most definitely illegally . Her manner seemed firm but fair, well, apart from when it was payday!
Yeah I disliked this too. The lady controlling the money and stuff too idk. For sure there are times when people need extra support and when they're probably not fit to manage money or to be independent but when they are stable and taking the right medications for them ..idk just let them breathe surely.
I wonder if there is any difference between now and then like with more tv channels and smart phones and internet to take boredom away , if there’s any difference. I just mean like sitting with no tv on all day must make overthinking worse
Whats needed is more supported living places so they are not on the street.My son has loud conversations with himself all night and half the day when he is having a stressful day.No way can he stay in a hotel or guest houses as he keeps them awake and freaks them out.
I am sorry to hear this about your son. It is worrying. Can I ask what the condition is? I know someone who does this but he refuses to seek help. We tried an intervention to assess but he refused to engage. the attempt to further section him was too stressful and caused more harm. Obviously if you prefer not to say I understand and respect this.
Todays politicians in the U.K. would have them all working 23hrs a day in a Nigerian Salt mine. Disgraceful how the genuine cases get left to struggle in this day.
The last in the yellow cardigan is so pretty and does her make-up so well very stylish at the time. Obviously I was only a baby when they made this documentary back in 1985 and heavy make-up was the thing,such a shame she was struggling with schizophrenic thoughts she could have done acting.
@@marklola12 what are you talking about grow up you Muppet. Look to your own ODD head and the interpretations you place onto people's comments and questions, get off socials you clearly can't interact with people with normalcy..weirdo
A terrible indictment of society under the ‘care in the community’ banner. Many seaside towns became the dumping grounds launched by the Thatcher government. Basically throwing them to the wolves. Extremely nasty in my opinion!
That man gots a big room. Our apartment is that size with stove and refrigerator and we have pull out couch for a bed. Kinda crowded but thats all we can afford. We got a walk in closet and we fit all our things in there and of course a small bathroom with shower. I like it tho'. We watch youtube vids together. She likes to paint pics and I crochet.
I've just tried looking it up on there and can't find it. I've searched virtually every keyword I can think of and get nothing. What did you search for or is there a quick link? Many thanks.
@@sparxies that's cool. I just happened to go to RUclips and see the notification. I wonder if the mystery can be solved of why this programme is connected to two different series?
@@MisunderstoodMisanthrope It also has a copyright of 1984 in the end credits, so maybe it was also broadcast before that, but I guess it might have been made in 1984 and shown in 1985. BBC site does get some stuff wrong, so it could be an error on their part.
It's not even that long ago, I mean I was 16 in 1985. But what immediately strikes me is how wonderfully polite, well spoken and above all British, everyone and everything is. Nostalgic and touching.
@@mrbenn1489 makes u feel old. I was 20 then
@@susannehall7234 - not old particularly, just older. I don't have a problem with that, I think I just prefer those times, in certain ways.
Things really changed with celeb trash reality TV from the late 90s onwards, that's when sounding obnoxious and pretending to act thick for laughs became the norm.
Cultures brought in that make machete and knife crime as well as acid attacks in the street a weekly even daily occurrence. UK 2024
I was around the same age just left school we grew up with manners an respect for Yr elders back than even towards people who were mentaly unstable x
The politeness, the respectfulness and the eloquence. I feel so nostalgic. I really miss this Britain
You said exactly my thoughts, it’s lovely to see but makes me sad and a little melancholy. Life these days seems so rushed and full of want and anger
@@joannelawrence2126 I can't cope with modern life these days. I work for my self on my own. The only people I have anything to do with these days are my wife, kids and about 4 friends that's it. Every time I walk out of my front door I wonder what nonsense I will come across. We are beyond help.
Me too
@@BillyJango you have the ideal situation, if I could, I would do exactly what you do…. It is hard to find anyone ‘normal’ these days, life was so much more laid back in those days. Good luck sir! 😊
Vote Reform UK 2029
Miss these old style docs, everything now days has to be loud and sensatiinal with a hip young reporter being loud and in everyones face.I hope everyone found happyness and peace
You're so right about the style of documentary nowadays 😂 They're also killing our attention spans.
@@Totallyunderrated-1 yes remember Wickers World I think the travel show was along these lines. It had a touch of class about it. RIP Alan Wicker.
Spot-on! Nowadays they play music in documentaries even when they go into the loo, and most bothersome music I can tell!
@@susannehall7234 Whicker was a legend. The purveyor of British class.
My job involves working with vulnerable people, there are too many who simply cannot look after themselves. They are exposed to manipulation, abuse, coercion, cuckooing. Many are taken advantage of by so-called ‘friends’ who gain their trust then begin to take money off them.
@@IngenerateIngenue so true. And spend all their money on themselves. It happens much more in mental health than people realise.
Very very true and heartbreaking.. 😢
Same.
No wonder Hastings turned out the way it is
@@IngenerateIngenue well thats life.either tell em to fook off or be the fool.sorry but no one in life is here to care about any thing else but themselves.so get with the programme.LIFES TUFF.
Great documentary. Bleak and heartwarming at the same time. ❤
Even the psych patients were polite back then!
Having worked with them in the community nowadays, they still are. Its only the few who commit serious crimes that you hear of.
I found this documentry heartbreaking.
Me too 😢
Thank you for sharing this very touching old programme. Any decent society should take care of its vulnerable. There are more now than ever, for all sorts of reasons. I would love to think that life improved for the people on this programme, but I doubt that it did.
Don't even seem bothered about the elderly as well nowadays eh Ms Reeves. Who's next?
I had a nervous breakdown and got very physically sick while trying to work some nasty low pay wage slave sheet job 8 years ago. I havent worked since. Im also born quite physically handicapped.
I was in mental hospital for 3 weeks-bipolar, major depression, ptsd, horrible insomnia. I go to groups at a mental health center. Cooking group, discussion groups, arts and craft group, crochet group. I go there 3 days a week. I also take meds but sometimes the insomnia is really bad.
Im on disability and I have an apartment with a roommate cuz rent is real high. She goes to the groups and shes my friend.
Sometimes I do better, sometimes I do bad, especially with the insomnia. But the groups help alot.
Did you go to your local community street 💩ing classes?
Gosh memories i lived in hastings from about 82 to 86 it was some of the darkest times of my life my father had just died i was living on the streets in london with mental health and drug problems i was offered a job in hastings that i lost quite quickly i ended up a full blown heroin addict working and stealing to stay normal living in besits and many of the people in this documentary i am sure i interacted with during my time there life did not get much better when i moved back to london in 86 i did a degree and as soon as i made money it just enabled me to live more dissolutely . i am 70 now i should not be alive there is so much regret in my life so many people i have hurt life just seems to have had a direction all of its own but i cannot blame anyone other than myself. I wish i had been permanently sectioned in my teens it would have saved me and many others a lot of pain.
@@ricdavid7476 I totally recommend Prof Sam Vaknin RUclips amazing insights in "Addiction" EPs. + "13 types of mentally ill family" & "Hack your mind to heal/succeed" 👍☮️😁
@Mack-w7zdid not blame his death on my woes at all I was a wanker a long time before he died I just used it to describe my condition before moving to Hastings. You are not a wanker ? If you say no I call you a liar
@Mack-w7z - whilst there might be some credence in what you say, the only "wanker" I feel is present in this exchange, is the one that looks back at you, when you glance in the mirror.
@@mrbenn1489 your not a wanker? I call you a liar if you say no
Thankyou for sharing your story.
People like them are the nicest people out there in this world
Pushing them out into society when they have nothing to do is aweful
Such a deeply melancholic film.
So sad. These people are so vulnerable 🙏
And lonely 🙁
I felt so sorry for the guy who wanted to be with the one who said she didn't want to get engaged....when he sat on his bed and tore his nice trousers
Exactly they were so vulnerable and despite being very attractive to poor people locked in institutions, was it actually caring for them ? , like hell it was to put a guest house owner in charge of people with severe mental illnesses is absolutely shameful !
I agree I had mixed thoughts on it aswell , I know it was meant well , but I think they needed Life skill courses , and lessons and job apprenticeship or voluntary roles and community groups fir leisure, physical, emotional, mental and spiritually if they desire and of their choice with guidance and some structure .
Nowadays we have (dont) Care In The Community 😢
I thoroughly enjoyed watching this. Thank you for sharing.
People were so polite in this time, that has definitely changed since this time. Everybody language is so respectful
@@davidpatrickcoggins1153 So true. Now everywhere employs security guards in case of anything kicking off or getting out of control...
Societal trust has erooded due to family breakdown and population replacement
Here we go, the usual 'better in my day' rubbish. People were more polite in the past??!! Why do you think all asylums were closed by the 90s? Because people were mistreated and abused in them. There were also no proper safety measures, so 'polite' people like Jimmy saville were going around these places exploiting vulnerable people.
@@susannehall7234Yeah, it was better in the 80s when there was less security. That way Jimmy saville could go in to asylums and abuse people. And football hooligans were able to arrange fights and sing racist songs with little deterrent. Yeah, much better.
No, they weren't. People had less understanding of mental health than now, so these people were treated worse and there was no legislation to protect them. You're talking about a time where asylums were still active. These places were closed because people were dehumanised and mistreated in them. There's not much polite about that.
Care in the community doesn't work for everyone....
I was 1 when this came out,love looking back at days gone by
I’m so eager to know how these fine folks fared and if they’re still with us. I’ve been watching many of these news documentaries and I am so hopeful that many of these folks ended up having safe and happy lives.
This was so quiet...and sad. Very well done,
You have a very interesting channel here. Thought provoking!
Edit* they shouldnt have closed all these places, at least in the US. we have so many people with severe problems wreaking havoc upon the populace. They are not getting the level of care and supervision required out in the public.
Sad to think how sick people were treated 😢
Any more documentarys on children with autism getting speech therapy to help them talk
I remember many guesthouses that accommodated people who had been in hospital for many years beforehand. I often thought there was something a little mercenary about the landlords/ladies. Interesting how much the landlady let her guests have after counting it all out and seeming to keep the rest. Thank goodness for sheltered housing and care in the community -although there's not enough of it😢 Good old Blighty. Edit: you have some great uploads😊
@@FHjsgy7bm thank you. I will definitely check it out.
More insightful than much of current documentary content regarding mental health issues. Thank you for sharing. I was 14 at the time but It looks a life time away.
I find them unintentionally funny - Robert and his 5 year old injection pain when he comes out with his sarcastic "oh thanks for telling me 5 years later!!"
Aye, made me laugh
It was a massive mistake to empty and demolish the old psychiatric hospital, the idea of 'lunatic asylums' had come to mean a place of torture and misery but it was forgotten that asylum mean a place of safety. Now the one time would be patients are left to mostly cope alone in a society too lacking in resources and time poor to provide any real help and very often it ends up with the police having to try to deal with ill people and ultimately they end up in the prison system which is no help either them, the staff or fellow inmates.
Beautifully well made documentary that let the people involved speak for thenselves rather than relying on a constant commentary. Would love to know what happened to Martin and Cherie. I hope she did meet an older man and get her flat.
A bit like an Arena BBC (strand) documentary
It would be lovely to hear that these people had good outcomes and that things improved but who knows. I have a schizophrenic friend and just want to do my best to help him. The meds nowadays are a bit better I think - generally psychosis and delusions can be treated well but the side effects are so numbing. We have to be positive though don't we.
Poor tortured soul's..
God bless them all ..
I was in the shovel in 1985. A few people came onto the wing. We could tell they were not the full Monty.
It was a sad affair, watching men struggle with the routine of stir. Some of the drug users would half inch their meds.
Out of one institution where they had some sort of protection, into an institution where no one cared.
Jesus that scene at @31:20 with the Laughing Machine. Poor woman.
Like a scene from Agatha Christie.
Yeah, reminded me of the twilight zone. Like she was in a trance 😮
Yeah, what exactly did that thing do anyway ?
@@mistofoles
Machine. That laughs
They all seem to be very nice people lovely
Actually the humour of the smoking party was touching.
I find this heartbreaking too ..I wish I could just wrap them up and help them get the best out of life XX god bless em
I know how that woman feels about trying to explain that the medication isnt helping and professionals are very patronising about it.
People may laugh at the landlady who wouldn’t allow male company in her establishment, but years ago more people had standards and I think it’s rather sweet and she was simply endearing
And witch that lady's age she would've been raised around very different standards. She said she's fine if she has a fiancee and they can meet but just no hookups and short term relationships.
@@solofemaletravelerme pulling out the “God” card hey? What a stupid
delusional reply
Those walls were for the protection of those that lived within them. I trained in a 1,800 bed hospital, condensed down to 54 beds under the thatcher government. Prior to that shut down, everyone had an occupation, got ‘paid’ and had a purpose within the institution. Working on the farm, the kitchen, even the dental clinic. Say what you will about abuses within the ‘’asylums” but that’s a reflection of the nature of people, not only mental institutions. think jimmy saville in the bbc, the boy scouts, the Catholic Church. For the majority, the walls provided a safe and therapeutic environment for people to thrive in. That has long gone for those who benefited from it…..
I just came back from visiting London this pasted September. I was hoping it would be the same as when i first visited in 1986. I did NOT see or hear any British people in LONDON at all. Lots of foreigners and tourists (like myself) Nobody in London says, CHEERS anymore. I felt sad and felt OLD London gone!! Then the owners of the guest house where I was staying in Clapham Junction told me I might like Brighton. So I went to Brighton and sooooo glad I did. It still felt like ENGLAND and the people there were definitely more BRITISH!! That made it worth my vacation time. Next time I am visiting Yorkshire and more Northern England. Hopefully its more British there??? Peace S
I'm always left wondering what happened to the people.
Yes me too. Always good when documentaries have parts updating you ..there was one about a guy who had a sex change in the late 70s and it followed him and then her right through to the late 90s. Really interesting it was. Takes a lot of work though I guess to make these years apart updates.
Wow! The trouser ripping scene has stuck with me for nigh on 40 years!!! Wonder what became of these folks.
What was he ripping them up for?
@MattFisher-rf8hr Mentally challenged. Plus angry and frustrated.
@MattFisher-rf8hr I think he was unable to maybe deal with unrequited feelings. That poor man.....
Only problems with these docs, is what becomes of them......
The lady was trying to move on with her life . And she was getting no postive vibes just go away . So unfair
I trained as a nurse in that hospital.
Poor You! Did Jimmy pay a visit a few times?
I hope that things are better in the places now. My friend was in hospital for 5 months and said it was generally fine and that people were generally nice but that it's just so BORING.
There used to be some right horrible bastards that worked with the vulnerable people in these ghastly places
Sadly narcissistic sadists are attracted to working in these places where they can carry out their cruelty, they thrive on vulnerable people.
And now they have it better? Hardly.
Im Australian and people used to be so polite back then like these people. Times have changed not for the better. That old lady wasn't very nice to Cherie, not fair giving the place to someone after her
Heartbreaking / Anger inducing
@optimistnow7491 same, same... been through on the sharp end of a very animated machete threat and tears of screaming to turn off non existent music.. no help for either them or myself who was recovering from a physical attack .. I had to abandon my home In. The end . Its heartbreaking to watch this, but Interesting too... the mid 80s.. my experiences started in mid 90s..my heart does break for many.. my empathy is too much sometimes.. I feel it so deeply 😢 xxxx
@optimistnow7491 and yes, anger.. for the lack of help and care..basic stuff..yeh I'm screaming inside ❤
Can anybody get some 80s clifton hospital and bootham park in York footage ? I was stuck there 1987 ,! X 😢
God bless them all, the system then was a total joke and I live in Bridgend south Wales and just a quarter of a mile up the road from the village I live in was the parc hospital which is now the notorious parc prison and back when I was young the patients from the hospital which was a psychiatric hospital used to come into the village and they were sometimes troublesome but the majority of the time they either kept themselves to themselves or they would chat to us and they were some of the nicest people i ever met and when they closed the hospital mid eighties they put the patient's in the care in the community program which was a huge failure and it broke my heart to see the state of those people who i had known who could not cope.
So irresponsible to leave a woman with no nursing history or mental health knowing with a household of hospital patients- disgusting!
the way she grabbed their money was sickening.
Why was she taking their money didn't they have bank transfers in the 80s for rent?
Firstly you have no clue what her history was and I can assure you. The boxes may be ticked in homes now but the person's supporting people are likely as inexperienced. The type of services the people in the video would live in today would likely also be unregulated as they don't require the support in regulated activities.
Tbh I don’t think she eas rude at all she counted it in front of them and encouraged them to keep it safe she was clearly doing her best I commend her for offering her b n b for these patients , yes in this day and age it’s not the way but back then at least it got them out of the asylums
It's awful when you get paranoid delusions & intrusive thoughts. Worse is when you try to explain it to people. They don't understand, don't even want to understand. They just think you're a 'nutter' & don't want to know, so you isolate from the world. It's very lonely.
You're not a 'nutter' Dave. People with heart problems aren't called names, and so mental illness shouldn't be subjected to that either. Some people really do care you know. All the best to you.
@@dave_goldcrest I totally recommend Prof Sam Vaknin RUclips amazing insights into "bad introjects" etc he is clarity itself👍☮️😁
I'm sorry to hear that, though i'm not surprised. I spend a lot of time alone and find it impossible to fit in. I spend a lot of time thinking of the past and happier times.
I remember watching a documentary many years ago when they started closing the asylums down, a gentleman 76 years old who was being interviewed in the asylum was telling how he ended up there, he was 5 years old (this could have been around the Victorian era) and playing on the street when a gentleman on a push bike picked this child up, and put in the front basket of the bike and took him to an orphanage, he ended up in an asylum later in life and spent the rest of his life there.
Asylums and orphanages in Britain were private before the NHS, the more people they got the more money the government paid these places.
Which is hilarious.
Closing all the asylums down when we have all these "asylum seekers" boating in
It would have been interesting if there had been an update to this programme.
I wonder what became of these people.
They all jumped in the sea to escape the hideousness
Most them probably are passed by now
Very interesting. Thankyou!
I also sometimes feel like ripping up my trousers!
Hahaha... I liked this. I rip mine falling over. It's quite liberating)
The drugs back then were insane. Massive improvements have been made thankfully. All of them look completely out of it. Poor guys.
Valium was a Biggie and chrorodiazypozine (,?) the liquid cosh ,,??
Chlordiazepoxide ?
Chlorpromazine largactil...I did have some.of this in my cupboard kept as a curiosity , it was from 1987 or 8. I had kept it that long..I'm not sure it's not been thrown out now , which is a shame as it would have been thrown during.a clean out and at a time I had temp forgotten it's implication on the mental health scene...it was historically important I kept it as a physical reference for these kinds of discussions and as a physical artifact of those bygone times of ignorance.
Hmm my friend is on meds for schizophrenia and whilst the paranoia and delusions are upwards of 95% gone, the numbing effects and depression are quite severe. He is looking to change meds soon though so hopefully there'll be improvements. I just wish something fantastic could come along meds wise schizophrenic / bipolar and other chronically mentally ill people really really deserve it after what they've had to deal with. Even if it costs a million pounds a person take the money from somewhere I say. Take one of Beyonce's gold bath tubs.
In the early 80’s I was admitted to a unit attached to one these asylums. It was a heartbreaking place. There were elderly people there who’d been committed to these asylums as young men and women. I often wondered just how they managed in society.
I think this is the most depressing thing I've ever seen
I feel very disheartened after watching tbh. Really hope that these sorts of psychotic mental illnesses are more understood in future.
Me too.
Martin's morning , cuppa went straight to the back of the net☕️🥅
They closed down Queen Charlotte Hospital in West St. Leonard's in the early 2000s, I grew up nearby and the place was always full of mentally ill patients. A friend of mine had a spell there even. Nowhere for all those disturbed people to go when they close such places, except back into society to try to cope on their own or with what little support networks they have (often none). A troubling thought.
Insightful, in ways, but also something very voyeuristic and opportunistic at the expense of these complex people about this film. But I am sure this was a pioneering view into words most viewers would not have seen before.
People waxing lyrical about how polite people 'were' need to consider that a lot of these scenes will be staged or lead by producers. They also don't show the absolute horrors and traumas these people might, do and will face. It's an incredibly selective and tailored view under direction and supervision.
23.10 the way that woman spoke to her it was absolutely shocking asking her private information about your doctor you wouldn't be doing that today.
@uniteallaction I think she was just trying to make sure that she was ok to go out to work and wasn't doing stuff against doctors orders.
Yeah people back then didn’t break so easy as per today! Today, EVERYTHING is shocking to people !
Heartbreaking.
I'm 55 & nostalgic about the cash!
They cared as well as hosted guests. Awww❤
Council put us in one of those BNBs when I was 24 after we were made homeless..Never forget it and it was the first step on our ladder to better times!
I wonder what happened to these people. Very very sad. 😢 God bless them all.
This is the England I remember. How things have changed on so many levels. None of them good
Ah yes…Thatcher’s ‘care in the community’…we all know how that went…
My friends mother was apoplectic she ran a massive institution which favoured occupational health she did wonders for them. Whereas some people would give them repetitive jobs she did something that broke that mold. Purdown hospital now blackberry hill hospital a nurses training unit part of UWE Bristol. Terrible things they did the Thatcher government
And i wonder where the violent ones in Stoke Park Hospital went massive it is.. now a development multi million pound flats. I expect her friends thatcher got some monies from all these sales ie as developers . Like theyre doing in freeports in hull etc and eventually all over the country.. labour carrying it on (im not reform).. thank God they didn't get Purdown.
@@_Meng_LanThey shut down the massive 1800's asylum where I lived & put them in local shared houses ( University town so plenty of them) with a social worker visiting weekly. It was chaos. 2 yrs later they built a way smaller modern facility, attached to the local Hospital & put the violent ones there.
Its all great in principle, until someone stops taking their meds, thats often when some poor unsuspecting soul ends up getting stabbed on the high street. Governments make out its for the peoples rights, its not its always been about saving money.
I agree 100 alot of people out there these days should really be in secure hospitals.Its all about saving money,end off...
Agree!! Very dangerous
Agreed very dangerous. I'm alone with a paranoid schizophrenic neighbour. He was hallucinating the other week that my flat was on fire. Bashing the door down at 7am & hollering , ignoring me when I said there was no fire or smoke. Then had the bloody fire brigade turn up & I had to go out to work. Banging the walls all night long, shouting at himself, shouting at the whole street telling us all to die. Sits on the ground outside his front door all through the early hours smoking & coughing with a yelling, keeps everyone awake. Music on a loop, all night. Called me a cunt and threatened to knock me out. He gets away with it all. All the agencies have been called & nothing has changed for 14 miserable years!
Care in the community is the biggest farce that gets paid for doing nothing while the poor neighbours are not trained or paid to live like their warders at the risk to ourselves with zero protection. Appalling situation
Now importing such who've no mental disabilities just spite...
@@oliveonthebuses1Psychiatry is a failed science and it admitted defeat with care in the community. There is no care in the community, prisons are now the replacement asylum. 😮
thanks
How it should be now. I see special needs neglect as absolutely horrific in Scotland, left with alcohol problems and the government pays money that they don't know how to spend properly and some are just added to tramps now. Very unfair as they don't have much more than the sense of a child. It's 40 years later and there are no homes,just council houses they can't furnish,keep clean or buy food to sustain themselves. The government think giving money is enough it's like giving a large amount of money to a child and telling them to self sustain. The police are their only social support and most are as kind as a lawyer. They even put them in jail and bail them into the same dysfunctional circumstances.
Gosh the 1980's look like the 1960's
Part of it yes
Only 16 years between 1969 and this documentary. 39 years between this doco and now.
Trouble with these , we never get follow ups , not even a page we can go to and see what happened to these people.
Whenever I watch one of these old documentaries I always wonder what happened to those that were featured. Hard to find out unless someone who knows them turns up in the comments section of their videos.
@@bruirn yes it is a pity. You wonder if they are still alive and if their lives improved. Some of them will be dead by now but what a legacy they have left. A peep into the mid 80s and the world of technology just about to take over. Makes me feel old gosh....
Huge building!
The landlady is nice, a lot involved in running a boarding house
Nice..who knows what goes on when the camera stops rolling
@@Trish-ql9kz you could say that about anyone
@@justmadeit2 that’s right.
I know I'm being sad but in the 80s I still remember those large ketchup and brown sauce bottles on tables
I was in one of them, looked the very same as that building.
Poor buggers 😢
Is this why so many small towns today have high streets full of people with mental illnesses? Is it a legacy of this system of sending them out to boarding houses?
@@kaysmith8992 yes I agree there are even dangerous people out there on the loose and nobody seems to ensure that the mental health system is fit for purpose. The general public shouldn't be put at risk. I have witnessed several scary instances myself so I am talking from experience.
@susannehall7234 I thought the state payed there rent was was that landlady taking there pension money an leaving them with 20 qu9d xx
@@nicolagriffiths3933 yes I think it is still paid separately to the landlord or claimant. I think maybe in this case the landlady was playing the role of mentor/community care support worker. They could not be given the amount in full as many would have spent the whole lot in one go. It looked as though (I'm just just guessing here) it might have been a fortnight's 2 wks worth of benefit as DLA now PIP didn't exist back then. Certainly they couldn't have been trusted to pay the rent out of Universal Credit paid monthly nowadays. It was done so that the viewer got a better understanding of just how vulnerable to exploitation some of the residents were. They had to capture this on camera but I think it was all above board or otherwise the landlady would have been guilty of illegal activities instead of simply trying to teach them how to budget.
@@nicolagriffiths3933none of us know what was going on but what I witnessed with my eyes was all of the patients monies were in/ on tables/ envelopes and the landlady was going round taking the big wad from everyone and they got a big note and some change back! I bet she was raking it in LEGALLY and most definitely illegally . Her manner seemed firm but fair, well, apart from when it was payday!
Whats with that guy at the boarding house just walking unannounced into everyones room to give them a cup of tea
I thought exactly the same thing - everyone deserves some privacy - he should have knocked on each door first before going in
@@PertinaxPertinaxone guy was just in undies and putting on a shirt. Very ignorant behaviour wasn't it
Yeah I disliked this too. The lady controlling the money and stuff too idk. For sure there are times when people need extra support and when they're probably not fit to manage money or to be independent but when they are stable and taking the right medications for them ..idk just let them breathe surely.
Patient's feel safer in the asylum. So ive been told by people that have lived in them.
@@jaynewherry2245 That's what is known as ' seeking asylum ' in the truest sense of the phrase
Institutionalisation is the correct term. Happens to prisoners too.
They are now just wandering around the citys and towns. They haven't dealt with the problem. Care in the community doesn't exist.
The Landlady Looked after the money so they did not squander it. She asked a resident if he wanted any of his money at 26:54
She seemed very nice and caring for them and had a great rapport with them.
@@LawnMowersThingsThatMakeNoise he was probably dripfed which is common practice in these institutions rehab etc.
I want a room
The chap said he worried his mind would "go for a complete buton"
Ive not heard this saying in years!
Poor chap
"Gone for a Burton". It's supposed to be a phrase used in the RAF in WW2.
@@radicalcartoons2766 'Battler Britton' coined it.
I wonder if there is any difference between now and then like with more tv channels and smart phones and internet to take boredom away , if there’s any difference. I just mean like sitting with no tv on all day must make overthinking worse
Whats needed is more supported living places so they are not on the street.My son has loud conversations with himself all night and half the day when he is having a stressful day.No way can he stay in a hotel or guest houses as he keeps them awake and freaks them out.
I am sorry to hear this about your son. It is worrying. Can I ask what the condition is? I know someone who does this but he refuses to seek help. We tried an intervention to assess but he refused to engage. the attempt to further section him was too stressful and caused more harm. Obviously if you prefer not to say I understand and respect this.
No doors on the room.
wow!
Todays politicians in the U.K. would have them all working 23hrs a day in a Nigerian Salt mine. Disgraceful how the genuine cases get left to struggle in this day.
Wish we had real time machines. 😥
Imagine all that money she spent on phonecalls in the phonebox. Makes you realise how easy it us now with mobiles and internet at your fingertips
24:29 that is out of order....and she is a nasty little power wielder..so glad we've moved on a bit!
Bet it's Manpower or Brook Street)
❤❤❤
The last in the yellow cardigan is so pretty and does her make-up so well very stylish at the time.
Obviously I was only a baby when they made this documentary back in 1985 and heavy make-up was the thing,such a shame she was struggling with schizophrenic thoughts she could have done acting.
What makes you think she wanted to do acting.???
@@Sol-Cuttathey are not saying she WANTED to do acting so grow up. They said she COULD have done or gone into acting
@@Sol-Cutta she was pretty and elegant. Her speech was up to being eloquent I thought.
@@marklola12 what are you talking about grow up you Muppet. Look to your own ODD head and the interpretations you place onto people's comments and questions, get off socials you clearly can't interact with people with normalcy..weirdo
She was lovely
I wonder what happened to them?
A terrible indictment of society under the ‘care in the community’ banner. Many seaside towns became the dumping grounds launched by the Thatcher government. Basically throwing them to the wolves. Extremely nasty in my opinion!
Have people actually watched this right through?
Keep up there Good work on here am a big support of u do a rally good job on here keep up there good work on here keep up there good work on here
They put the young guy with old farts
Omg. The thumbnail in the fish and chip shop. Is it Angela Rayner ?
Care in the community but community doesn’t care
That man gots a big room. Our apartment is that size with stove and refrigerator and we have pull out couch for a bed. Kinda crowded but thats all we can afford. We got a walk in closet and we fit all our things in there and of course a small bathroom with shower. I like it tho'.
We watch youtube vids together. She likes to paint pics and I crochet.
Think Eddie was was wanting more than to look at photos
Eddie was my favorite part.
Interesting that the opening titles say "Real Lives" and yet BBC Genome say it was broadcast as part of the "Forty Minutes" series.
I've just tried looking it up on there and can't find it. I've searched virtually every keyword I can think of and get nothing. What did you search for or is there a quick link? Many thanks.
@@sparxies unfortunately, you can't share links in RUclips comments but go to Thu 21st Feb 1985, 21:30 on BBC Two England
@@MisunderstoodMisanthrope Excellent! Many thanks for the rapid response. Honestly didn't expect a reply this soon, but it's a pleasant surprise.
@@sparxies that's cool. I just happened to go to RUclips and see the notification. I wonder if the mystery can be solved of why this programme is connected to two different series?
@@MisunderstoodMisanthrope It also has a copyright of 1984 in the end credits, so maybe it was also broadcast before that, but I guess it might have been made in 1984 and shown in 1985. BBC site does get some stuff wrong, so it could be an error on their part.
Good video! Isn't that Jane Amstad at 18:08? She was a very nice lady. Mrs Bailey still has her recruitment agency in town I think.