I see people commenting, "They thought these conditions and torture would help?" but you must understand. These patients were seen more as a nuisance than anything else. The main reason people dropped them off was not to be cured but to get rid of them. And then these asylums saw an opportunity to operate and experiment on patients who could not protest and who no one cared about. Asylums were basically big boarding houses for those whose families abandoned them.
Myathewolfeh1 On top of that: medical knowledge has advanced a lot in the last since then. Some doctors really did believe lobotomies would work, nit because they're cruel, but because they didn't know better. I'm pretty sure that in the future people will look back at us and be like "how could they do that? That's cruel and inhuman." And don't forget that those expiremts helped medicine to advance. Just like other human experiments. They are cruel. They are inhumane. They shouldn't have happened. But they helped modern medicin.
exactly, that’s what people seem to miss. they weren’t trying to torture them even though looking back on it that’s what society sees it as. i think of it as more of human experimentation than helpful.
And nowadays you can turn up to hospital suicidal and self-harming and get told that you haven't tried anything so you're obviously OK and sent home at 3am.... old system was bad, new system is bad...
Sarah Gooda old system was bad but we'll funded new system is good but hugely underfunded to the point that it seems the government is trying to destroy the nhs
Sarah Gooda I agree things have gotten better depending which country and state but there is so much more that has to be done I've been in and out of hospitals and one treatment center theres a long way to go but at least we got rid of some old practices
My distant Uncle, who fought in WW1 and lost his brother during the same war, had terrible PTSD when he came home. The doctor he saw wanted him to be put into one of these places but fortunately my whole family rallied around and made sure he didn't go, I am very proud of them for standing by him and not taking the easy option of sending him away to die in one of these awful places. They loved him and were proud of him, as am I.
its a miracle that more men didnt come back from the Great War beyond help. all the horror they lived with day in and day out, i cant even fathom. just the smell of the trenches would be enough to do me in, let alone finding countless bodies while trying to dig in someplace.
I work with the Mentally ill and have for 33 years and this video breaks my heart and pisses me off. I would never abuse any of them or watch anyone else do it.
👏👏👏 as an NHS mental health nurse now, it is completely unforgivable how those poor patients were treated. Most unforgivable was when some asylums let the public pay a fee to walk around the building and treating the patients like they were zoo attractions
I worked for a decade, 1989 to 1999, in a residential hospital for adults with learning disabilities, many of whom had been placed there as children in the 50s and 60s, some even further back in time. Quite often the parents had been advised to put their offspring in such places so they would receive 'appropriate care'. I'll always remember one elderly lady who'd been placed in the hospital at age 6 because she'd 'flashed her knickers' at the vicar! This was in about 1926, a time when authority was rarely questioned/challenged. Had she been a 6 year old today she'd have been put on the 'naughty step' at worst or people would've simply ignored such behaviour with a ' Silly girl'.This poor lady spent her entire life institutionalised, dying just before her 86th birthday! 20 years on and I still have an image of this little elderly lady who'd never known life in any other way.
My grandma had a great-aunt(?) who was institutionalised because she’d been caught conspiring to commit theft with the local vicar’s daughter. The latter got away scot-free. This was before WW1. The relative was still inside when my uncle was born in 1967.
Wow... they really did put people away for anything. I don't understand why they would have dumped her at an asylum for that... or why they wouldn't have come back for her at some point unless they didn't want her to begin with.... which in turn is even more sad....
Emma Thomas Hi. I don't think people who experiences paranormal phenomena are mentally ill- and psychic manifestations are a paranormal phen. However, many psychiatrists/psychologists may classify them as such because of an inability to explain such events scientifically. Science and spirit are just two sides of the same coin that have trouble seeing each other.
talitakoomi Oh, psychiatrists and doctors don't lack any explanation on the subject of ''paranormal experiences'', you just don't like 'em or ''agree'' with 'em. Big diference.
I've got bipolar/schizoaffective and OCD intrusive thoughts. It's terrifying to think that if I were born only 50-100 years ago, I would have ended up in an asylum and I probably wouldn't be as stable, happy, and healthy as I am now. Thank goodness for modern medical practice.
+Becky Brown I was more precisely talking about when a patient was assaulted by the nurses. I've seen mean nurses and am started my nursing studies next year. I would never allow a nurse to be rude especially not beat on any patient. I do believe that a lot of nurses from these asylums have lots of regrets for not protecting the patients when they were being attacked (physically and or mentally). I don't think I would be able to sleep at all.
+Dominique Freeman That is disgusting. I hope you are doing everything you can to make them pay. Children need patience most of all, but those with disorders need even more patience.
+Dominique Freeman As a teacher for students with special needs, your comment angers me. Of course, I'm not angry at you, but angry at the teachers who abused your child. I hesitate to even put a hand on a students' shoulder, much less beat one. I would direct, redirect and redirect again a student to the appropriate behavior verbally and only touch a child, if he or she doesn't understand and the touch is always gentle and careful, just to direct the student to his/her chair. Most of them have trouble sitting on the chair. *giggles* I can't blame them, we are organic beings and we are attracted to organic things, so naturally the students sit on the wooden desks and not on the plastic chairs. I stated this once to a teacher who walked in who was telling my student to sit down on his chair, and she didn't like my humor too much. *raspberry, making a loud farting sound* She is a general ed teacher, so I forgive her a tad bit for not understanding the humor of it all. :/ Many students approach me and have an understanding that I'm there to help in whatever they need. I'm not just a teacher who is certified to teach students with special needs, but I was once a student in special ed, so I have a deeper understanding on how they feel and think than most teachers do. That is why I cringe when I hear stories like yours and I have to use all of my will and might not to burst out and hurt those teachers who abuse their authority and rank.
+DropsOfPluto They are simply indoctrinated into the mental illness religion and belief system and not given a choice about it, if they choose to work there. The story at the beginning of the programme was telling, in that the nurse stated "If you work around shit, you become shit." This justifying while blatant and ought to be shocking don't shock enough consciences out there. The INDUSTRY is exactly the SAME as it has always been. We need a veritable REVOLUTION to OVERTHROW these power-mongering fanatical "medical helpers" which contrariwise are RUINOUS to ALL OF SOCIETY.
ECT is still used and as a nurse I've seen some remarkable results from using it. It's not like "One flew over the cuckoos nest". It's much improved now.
Samantha Marie They're banned and any mental health practitioner who practices such acts will be prosecuted in any country (not sure about Liberia and North Korea though). If you don't live in a third world human-classified country, I'm sure you won't encounter these awful treatments towards the mentally unwell.
QuantumStriker 003 That's not true at all. It's still used for extreme depression. Although now they sedate the patient as it's more humane and effective. It's not such a traumatic event for them. All you have to do is a little research to see it's still practiced today. Just not as widespread or brutal as it used to be.
Samantha Marie I suffered from severe depression for over 40 years. I finally requested ECT. This resulted in prompt relief. ECT can be life-saving for many people. It's not a cure. I still have to have treatments from time to time. But it lets me live far more comfortably than had been possible before.
sammy tell me about it, I've worked in these hospitals myself back in the 80s, then in community " care" homes and now on the recieving end of the system follwoing mental health problems myself. Oh yes the system still sucks and abuse and neglect still go on, I've been a whistle blower myself and still have flash backs of the poor people who were treated badly by supposed staff. Did manage to help get 2 or 3 nut job "nurses" put behind bars for a bit though.
What an eye opener. I've suffered from depression for most of my adult life (I'm 55), but with a combination of medication and good friends I'm able to cope for the most part. Thank God that times have changes from that barbaric regime. Excellent documentary and thanks for posting.
I was locked in an Asylum for 15 years. I was very badly Institutionalized. I was put into a flat at the end of the 1990s. During that period of time the world had be become digital. I then became pregnant. After an abusive traumatic childhood and a traumatic 15 years in the Asylum, I was exceedingly vulnerable and unable to protect myself. There was very little Community Care and what there was was very sporadic. It was 7 years before I felt the feeling of 'institutional' had faded. I never had any therapy during those years. I have CPTSD and Bipolar 2 Disorder. These were diagnoses recieved years after the Asylum closed down and we were tipped into a society that contained an unforgiving stigma. 15 years spent on many many different medications from clopromazine, largactil, carbamazepine, halaoeredol etc. Those 15 years whers as traumatising as my childhood yet in a different way. I was abused and felt I had no human rights. I slept in a mixed sex dormitory and was locked away and I believe punished for being sexually abused as a child. I am now 53 years old and believe that our mental health system is an utter disgrace.
My wife worked at Helingly Hospital as a Nurse. She would dispute the impression this video gives and considers that the patients were cared for well with the caveat that too long a stay would result in them becoming institutionalised. She was nearly dismissed shortly before the hospital closed for whistleblowing to the press. Under her care was a 54 year old patient called Wendy Cole. Wendy had been admitted to the hospital at the age of 2 1/2. (Yes, that’s two and a half). She was the product of incest. Hellingly had been her whole life. In its entirety. She was also therefore a product of Hellingly. It was determined by the powers that be that on cost grounds she should be returned to the community. But East Sussex County Council refused to take responsibility for her on the the grounds that she was born in West Sussex. My wife, therefore, was given the job of taking her to Brighton and basically dumping her there in a dirty flat . Of course Wendy was distraught and unable to cope. She died two years later. My wife was forced to sign a document of secrecy but decided to ignore it. True story. Nothing ever came of this outrage.
I am so sorry to hear about Wendy. Unfortunately, “dumping” mentally ill patients are not uncommon. It’s done when there’s no insurance or money to care for the patient.
Mad respect to all those who went through this torture. Now and then you get a glimpse of how sick and twisted humans can be and it makes you despair. Had I been born at an earlier time, I'd have been in one of those awful places. I can't and don't want to imagine what that must have been like. To struggle with mental illness is torture in its own right, but to be subjected to these repulsive treatments and abuse and ignorance is just barbaric. This has truly made me realise how lucky I am to live in these times with a mental illness. At least there's a strive to raise awareness and acceptance. I hope that continues.
I've just re-watched this video again (for about the 50th time) and still find some of it quite shocking. Thanks for all your views and comments... It's been interesting to see other people's perspectives on this. Thanks for watching and keep sharing, John :)
I'm so grateful for these documentaries exposing the mistreatment in these facilities. There's no excuse for mental and physical abuse, especially when it comes to the sick
Wow, poor Maggie, burning a piece of her brain out just because caring for five kids, probably while living on the edge of poverty got her nerves bad. I went through some very bad times in life where I am sure my personality suffered and I wasn't the most stable person, but what I needed was help to live, emotional support for grief, and financial assistance to handle bills, not a hot probe burning a hole in my brain. Like the one lady said, she felt empty and meaningless being pushed into a dead end job, in a go nowhere world, with no opportunity for self improvement, and since the great minds of England (or anywhere) weren't interested in helping peasants improve their lot in life, the answer was to say anyone who didn't want all that nothing is mentally ill and needs to be in an asylum. She was probably very intelligent and adventuresome but trapped in a world where only a select few could seek higher education and professional work. Just shows that politicians would rather pay to keep people down than to lift them up.
These type of documentaries I think are always important to see... There are so many stories of abuse in these type of wards we will probably never know about. So hearing about the stories from witnesses is the closest thing we can get to knowing what went on. Tragic but important it's not forgotten what went on
Shit so glad these places aren't open anymore. I have depression and I would have probably ended up somewhere like this. This breaks my heart to think people were treated like this :(
***** Not so clever ; perhaps not. .Devious Always . The phychiatrists hid behind a doctorate and held a position of power . And still do , but in a lesser way. .I instead , have memories triggered by and from these genuine comments . Not so much the documentary ; but by the kind responses of you kids today. Thank you. x
***** The government may make new rules for private and ' Public ' school, but the contents therin are always going to be the same Carl. . I have no mind left to dwell , or play on. Bilateral ECT on 18 occasions , took care of that. I'm OK now, totally alone but better and resigned than most. .Especially the young ones who have yet to live their twighlight lives. Take care of yourself. x
***** Their not treated like prisoners unless they are ambulatory, Most "baby insitutions" usually rely on throwing the patients who are 'safe enough" and can take care of themselves without assistance. They mostly walk around or find activities to do in public.
I just don't understand how it's assumed that a 'one size fits all' approach is going to suit every person with a mental illness. Some people can thrive in the community, others need a little more support and some are so ill they may need some level of in patient care.
This was before treatment was even a concern and people just wanted the mentally ill off the streets, it was a case of out of sight, out of mind so these were usually hospital in name only. By the early 1800's the mentally ill were left to die or euthanized and by the 1960's drugs had given us a way to manage the majority of the illnesses, but between roughly 1860 and 1960 was the century of compassion where we finally decided it wasn't humane to just forget about them so we built large prisons (for lack of a better term) and forgot about them anyway, as if that was humane or compassionate either. As the narrator said the last few decades from the 1930's to 60's saw treatments finally being offered but most were experimental like lobotomies and electrotherapy, it would be the breakthroughs in drugs that finally killed off the asylums. Thankfully.
Todd Sadler Yes I agree. Anyone who said anything against people in the establishment was sent to this kind of place. 'inmates' had no say in their treatments such as the barbaric lobotomies and electro convulsive treatments.
Mindrolling, I'm not sure about inpatient care in US or anywhere will be good for patients. I'm afraid that the psychiatric industry has gone to far with greed. I was a patient of the inhouse care and saw everything inside the hospital. They didn't care for me but made me sicker. In the hospital, I was struggled to stay alive. Please read my story and share to world, let me be the last victim of this madness of FRAUD!!!!
My mother was a psychiatric nurse and she was (is) a horrible person. A lot of staff in psychiatric institutions are there because they themselves are strange, sometimes with narcissistic and sadistic personalities: they want to be in control of people and like the medical 'scene'. I used to be disgusted at some of the things my mother would say about the patients.
Damn. I've got bipolar, for a while it was pretty bad, I was in hospital for it. But I was treated with compassion and respect, put on medicine, put in connection with community support and therapy and went on with my life, I can't imagine my life if I'd been born in an earlier time.
***** No, actually I am not a victim at all. I am a person with an illness that was treated. No different than a diabetic taking insulin. I was disabled at the time. I nearly died. I was not subjected to numerous blood tests, as it was not necessary. I was not experimented upon. I was given the front like treatment, when it didn't work, I was given another, which worked wonderfully. I lead a full and happy life because of my treatment.
Things have improved at least in that respect, last year I had to go to CBT sessions due to anxiety and depression as well as anger issues. I'm a different more cheerful person because it allowed me to get things off my chest and openly talking about it to someone has helped in so much ways
I did CBT therapy as well, I have OCD as well as bipolar and I found CBT immensely helpful, more so than any meds I tried. I would highly recommend it to anyone who has anxiety.
it's one thing reading about the horrendous things that went on, but another when you actually see and hear from the individuals themselves, I am studying mental health, and this has brought a lot of what I have read about to life, it's given me a timeline that was previously unclear. So grateful to be given the opportunity to learn from everyone that made the programme possible.
I have borderline personlity, ADHD and aspergers - I also work with adults who have learning disabilities and to think any of us would of been shoved into places like this. It's heartbreaking
I, for one, think that they threw the baby out with the bathwater when they completely closed facilities. I worked in Mental health for 20 years (in programs that support mentally ill people in their own apartments). I think that well run, humane communities for the mentally ill would solve some of the loneliness that they endure and assure that people would eat proper, nutritious food and take the prescribed medication that keeps them functional. There is no way that outside support a few times a week can ensure proper care.
TheLeatherChannel I have an aunt that has severe schizophrenia and would function exceedingly well in a group facility that was humane and supportive. She doesn't do well at all in normal daily life and stays at home and is exceedingly lonely. She'd thrive in a place where she can take her medicine and ensure she's getting the best care.
I grew up in a major city and saw the streets slowly become the new asylum. Seeing men and women living rough, ranting and raving, some self medicating, and so on is truly saddening. There cannot be a one size fits all approach to treating persons with mentally illness. Outpatient works for some but some need inpatient treatment plan and simple. I now live in a small agricultural town and see the same thing on a smaller scale due to a smaller populace but the behavior is the same. The most disturbing of all is there simple isn't anywhere for those suffering to that degree to go. Ever try getting inpatient help for a loved one? Be prepared to have the door shut in your face. There simply aren't the facilities. I have a dear friend who works at a Fortune 50 not 500 tech company, highly educated engineer with excellent insurance try to get her husband committed for a simple evaluation. Nope! They asked if he was suicidal or homicidal which he quickly assured them he wasn't. They were sent home. He killed himself in a very public way a day later at Christmas 2016. They had it all- money, success, excellent insurance and living in a major city where they sought help from the best of the best. My heart breaks for her. We need community based outpatient for high functioning patients but we also need inpatient facilities for the most fragile of patients. We are supposed to be a rich country, a developed country, a nation others look too yet it feels we've stepped back in time by several hundred years with our current treatment aka no treatment regime. The streets are the new open air asylums and they shouldn't be.
I find the history of asylums fascinating. not in a good way though. Sure, the buildings are gorgeous (in a terrifying, gothic way) and I'd love to look around one someday with a camera in hand, urban exploring style. However, it still boggles my mind how we could have been SO misguided about some of the "treatments" we made patients suffer through. I suppose an argument for hindsight could be made, but it doesn't take a genius to see the difference between cured and permanently/temporarily sedated. I watched a film recently called Stonehearst Asylum (based on an Edgar Allen Poe story) and while I understand that the entire thing is fictitious, some of the discussions and ideas in the film really got me thinking... It's well worth watching if you're into psychology/psychiatry :)
Did that one a while back - Leo's one of my favourite actors; I've watched most of his films :) But as far as asylums go (especially the morality of how they treat the patients) Stonehearst Asylum is waaay better. Plus who can say no to Ben Kingesly and Michael Caine?
@@sashawalker4492 There were certain large areas within the building that you could stand in the middle of and think....wow....for example, the main lobby is a large area with extremely high ceilings. The clocktower is also a beautiful area to visit as you're quite literally behind the clock on the top floor. It is for the most part, terrifying though, but the way some of the inside is, is quite stunning, space-wise. Especially the theatre area.
The joke told me by a person in the American mental health field: what's the difference between the patients and the staff? The patients get better and go home.
babyitscold outside Thats amazing. Your nan sounds nice. Thats so cute. And amazing. Used to call my Nan Nanners. She was so nice. Didn't know her long though.
This sounds like it could be made into a horror movie, no body could make this up and this would make a scary video game. I feel sorry for all the people who had to go through that nightmare.
There are many, many movies on Asylums and their patients and/or escapees. Grade B productions accentuating the "evil" insane people and their gory deeds. Seems not very many people have learned a whole lot.
Right? that's what I was thinking. depressed people can't be locked away, it'll just make them worse. they need to get out and actually enjoy their life.
No it would make it worse, the idea of being exluded from mainstream society and missing everything can be very offputing to most, and then being labeled with several stuff would lead to a lot of discriminatory experience. Trust me I know,, also depression is a mix of different issues going on, it's not something that can be helped by pills. I remained as quiet as I could to avoid being labeled, but they did anyway. All because a person wants to die, he or she is locked up left alone with horrible thoughts (now that's insane)
@Ayva Waddell they get abused and raped in the streets to, comitting crime, killing people, starving, homeless, left to rot. what dont you get about that?
By scientific study, it's now shown that 79% of high school students feel the same anxiety as mental patients did in the 1800s. Now, thinking about it, if that's an average pupil's stress level, how much worse are those with diagnosed anxiety? If we had the Victorian standard levels for locking people away in an asylum, I would honestly be locked up for life. Anyone else...? o_o
***** You could always Google it... Never mind. I Googled it and it only led to several comments the above person made where she posted the exact same comment, but I couldn't find any literature supporting it. :/ So, color me dubious also, I guess.
***** What is wrong with you people today and all this proof shit...open your eye's and look around and smell the roses...the damn truth is staring you right in the face everytime you go out into society...
Yeah, it would've been a living nightmare. It's why they 'had' to use such invasive and authoritarian practices: patients would act out because they were living in hellish circumstances, but staff had no fucking idea how or why, so they just did whatever seemed to shut up the patient in the short term. Still see it happen every day in disability services: a client has a 'behaviour', all the focus in on what the client did wrong, not what we did to agitate the client to the point of violence. 'oh, but we don't have TIME to talk to them about what's made them so upset they've been screaming for 4 hours! Can't we just give them some more meds to keep them quiet and happy?'. Sickeningly lazy. Also lol, a slipknot fan telling others not to breed...
My grant aunty had been forced into a mental hospitals in new Zealand when she refused to marry a man he managed to get her into one. He die and she was let out and married and lives well. But she was never the same, she never talked about what happened, but she cried when she thought no one was around. It sick
I have panic disorder and agoraphobia (thankfully now under control for the most part). I feel so sad for that poor lady who ended up been committed for 25 years for panic with agoraphobia...I'm just so lucky I got ill in the 2000s rather than in the 1950s as my story could have been so different.
Yes Alison, some people do read the comments following these videos. But for myself, I would thank you for both your courage as well as your candour in deciding to share both your experiences as well as your feelings. I understand your situation very well. Please allow me to suggest to you that though you may be perhaps very concerned, even very frightened, even with current approaches, and I've no doubt your aware of many, I would like to feel competent enough to say to you, that your particular struggle, even without any 'treatments' whatever they may even collectively be, will pass. They'll pass Alison. Stay strong 👍.
As a bipolar person that has been in the psychiatric system in the United States, its my opinion that this documentary really misses the mark on the most important realities of mental health and the mental health system. The documentary is essentially a social morality play on either complete incarceration or complete freedom (which the show insinuates is medication free) which is very much an outsider's view of the situation. The reality is that mental illnesses are chronic, lifelong conditions that, as of yet, have no cure. These conditions need to be regulated and controlled with medication and doctor visits. It's not about "lock them all up or send them all home." Was the old system barbaric? Sadly, it often was and positive changs were mandatory and have, in most cases, occurred. The documentary also insinuates that the closing down of hospitals was all a good thing because "people got to go home." Well, the truth is that many people in hospitals had no homes and ended up on the streets as homeless people, untreated, unwanted and very mentally ill. This was epidemic in the 80s. It's a very complicated situation, not black or white as the program implies.
These places killed my Grandmother. My mother would talk of her being beat on the head with blunt objects and given the shock treatments. Very barbaric. Not necessary. My poor Grandmother. Never got to meet her.
Polly Anna many your grandmother needed a good gobbing, only joking , the fact is the abused happened in these places all the time , I mean whos going to listen to a mental patient , 🤔🤔
I am a healthcare professional and found this programme disturbing, fascinating and informative. So many lessons were learned, and so many have yet to be learned
Being in the psychiatric system from a young age I am so glad I never had to go through any of this. I have been admitted to psychiatric hospitals twice and I don't know where I would be without them! It's great how things have changed but horrible that people had to be treated this way.
That poor woman in the institution because she had panic attacks, the worst being agoraphobia. It is scary as hell (panic attacks) if only explained to a patient, they, the patient would have a better understanding of what is wrong with them. Nowadays it is treated with an anxiety pill. This is now but not back then. How horrible for that lady. The young woman went in for a week of rest and ended up being their for 5 yrs. Terrible. Seems like some of these drs have classic symptoms of mental illnesses and to beat up on patients, again terrible. I think you go in normal and come out with an illness. Psychiatry is not an exact science. Certain drugs do help but there is seldom 1 on 1 discussions, unless you are wealthy. I think psychiatrists need to learn a lot more before they treat people.
I trained as a Psychiatric Nurse in Surrey, England from 1981 to end 1984 - the tail end of "institutionalised care", so to speak. There is no doubt that the closure of so-called "mental hospitals" was long overdue but it was not possible to achieve community based care sooner than it happened, due to the wholesale stigmatisation of the mentally ill, by society at large. The Victorian mores of "out of sight, out of mind" lasted well into the 1970's - much longer indeed than its counterpart, Victorian sexual-repression.
I was locked up in the psych ward in 2016, on 3 different occasions for my schizophrenia. It honestly was not too far off this video... it felt eerily similar watching this. My dad used to be a military prison guard in the army and he said he could barely stand to see me in there because it felt worse than prison. The abuse was a thing too, you get treated like and illness not a human. Had all your legal rights taken away from you. Sad really. And they also still want to do electric shock on me next year :)
This is so sad, I used to work in a home and some of the stories they had about being in these places were horrific, some were put in for being deaf ,some were put in by their spouse when there was nothing wrong with them.
And we actually haven't gone much further today. Sure we have a few more medicines but the stigma surrounding mental health, especially depression, prevents any real help or work. Instead we choose to sweep the mentally unstable under rugs and ignore them. Things must change.
I worked in a mental facility much like that. It was disparaging. I loved working there because I learned lot. There were many patients just dumped. Early 70s. Shock therapy was on the same floor where worked. I witnessed many ECT . That is nothing compared to other things I saw. On the geriatric unit, many men killed their spouses. They were considered to old to go jail. Those ones were cold blooded killer. Others were in dementia caused by syphilis One of the worst wards was where they kept adults with Severe Down Syndrome, eating gruel, smelling like shit because they were all in diapers. No training at a basic level. It was hard to look at. The stench of feces in the air was always there. We had serial killers too. I worked forensics for a while, and . My desk was in a cage. The prisoners were seriously like Silence of the Lambs. I also worked on a split ward and the nurses could be cruel. One nurse kicked this elderly lady in the butt and said hurry up, your like a old whore in heat. I used to take some home for dinner, but my parents were paranoid. There were plenty of people not meant to be there, his illness was he was deaf. .
The last few sentences you typed make no sense. Was it a She or He because it looks like 2 different people or did you mean to type Her instead. I'm confused
Two of my mothers sisters worked for many years at Highcroft Hospital, one lived at 43 Chudleigh road and the other within walking distance of the hospital, homes now built where the hospital once stood should never hols any seances, many "Paitents" died in their beds...... Both aunts often told stories about the psychiatric wards...
I find it interesting that in the end of the 1950s, they thought that mental illness no longer had the stigma. There are those who are still stigmatized by people who are not educated about this subject. Although more people have a mental illness or know someone who does, there are those who need medical help but won’t get help because of the stigma.
I am quite late to this video, but my dad used to work at Highroyds as an electrician. He's posted videos of walking around it. I went there once when I was young, not remembering much of it. It's a shame it's been turned into an estate, I would have loved to walk around it one last time, and really get a sense of the atmosphere and emotion.
I found this terrifying, and I'm only watching it. I hate rooms with white walls and lots of people, even more if it's in a hospital. Knowing you'd be drugged if you tried leaving or operated on if you were emotional, that's unforgivable. I know most needed a form of medicine, but most were over medicated. It's just shocking.
As someone who has Asperger's Syndrome and rapid cycling Bipolar disorder, I am happy that I as not born at this time. My dad was and he was a victim of the US equivalent of this system. Rather than put up with side effects, he elected to suffer on his own and drink. My mother had a nursing background and had worked in a state hospital. Both of my parents looked out for me and made sure that I was not sent to a state school and that my treatments were humane. They were my voices when at times I couldn't always be. Now I have a drive to finish my legal education because I see that there is so much in the world that needs to be changed for the better.
this is what happened to my dear friend Bettie RIP Bet the stories she told me before she sadly passed away last year of the absolutely horrendous things they did to her in the 1970's and so many others like her in the name of treatment are beyond shocking poor beautiful Bettie she showed me a large L shaped scar on her forehead that she always kept hidden beneath her fringe where they performed completely unnecessary and utterly barbaric torturous procedures on her in the name of medical science truly horrific chills me to the bone she will never see justice but she is at peace now sleep well Bett we love and miss you so much
we've gone from one extreme to the other now. care in the community doesnt really work - -the mental health service is buckling because of lack of funding. There are people not getting the help they so desperately need. This is having a detrimental knock on effect with other services such as social care, ambulance services, general hospitals and police, who are all left to pick up the pieces - and all of whom are also terribly underfunded.
I have both worked in such places ( 1980s and early 90s ) and in community care homes, sadly human attitude never changes, just because the assylums are closed and are now fancy apartments does not mean the negative and bad attitudes have died with them,spent a lot of my nursing days whistle blowing on cruel staff who should not have worked in such places with those terrible attitudes, one day many of us will become vulnerable and ill and suffer things like Alzeimers and be at the mercy of others , It has always disturbed me how anyone who is not compassionate, humane and kind would go to work in such a job. I have also been on the recieving end myself having suffered mental problems and am a care in the community case myself, it's hard , I am on long term medication but thankfully not locked up, I fear for the future with some of the attitudes of politicians today towards the disabled, ill and vulnerable. We must look out for each other it is the only way forward for humanity as a whole.
Maggie breaks my heart, they took advantage there. So glad she got her life on track, despite that awful abuse. I am SO thankful to God, all these changes took place that allow us to be part of our own treatment now. However, I am SO sorry poor souls had to go through it all so I could benefit. Joan is adorable. God love her.
As someone with bi polar 2 , EUPD and social anxiety. I am thankful for my wonderful GP and the help I have had from mental health team. No doubt 50 years ago I would have been locked away. Thankfully I'm stable and am a support worker for adults with learning difficulties and autism. Many of whom were in asylums 30 years ago now living in supported living and getting the care they need
Most people don't get the care they need though and are on the streets. I assume you are in the uk as you say EUPD not borderline. The care in the uk is diabolical.
We had a beautiful gothic asylum near us. It was huge and in lovely big gardens. You never saw anyone go in or out. But if i missed the last bus home at night i used to have to walk past it. Then you could hear the screams and most god awful noises like trapped animals. It closed down about twenty five years ago and has been converted into luxury flats. But no money on earth would induce me into living in one.
its no better nowadays ..ive suffered depression nd anxiety disorder for 30 years ,when my marriage broke down i found myself in mental health ward ..the staff were disgusting .treating us like animals .we were victims of rascism .and were subjected to ect and scary meetings where some of us were called frauds and liars and discharged in the rain late at night ,it was like prison ..some of us smoked but when we went to office to ask if we could go out for smoke were shooed away while the staff sat in office drinking tea ,we were constantly woken up by staff shining bright light into our rooms ,i saw one elderly patient slapped and thrown on floor and another pulled naked out of the bath and left shivering in the hallway how is this helping mental health patients ,we were told ...this is a 4 star hotel and you dont belong ...worst experiance of my life ..7 years on i still have nightmares ..i wasnt helped just bullied
I've been on over 15 different medications that caused everything from akathesia to long qt syndrome. I'm only 21 years old and because of these medications a have a heart condition of a 70 year old that can kill me. Everyone was so worried about me ending my life or acting supposedly "crazy" when now all I want to do is live because I'm OFF those medications, but now tomorrow is definently not certain for me. Thank you "reformed" mental health system!
Here in the USA 'community care' was (and still is) an absolute disaster. Just as in Britain, in the end, it came down to money. The government just shifted the burden onto the local NGOs, that were immediately driven to the breaking point, and soon the streets were flooded with psychiatric patients who's only 'care in the community' became jails and the criminal justice system - an immediate revolving door for people who's only offense was the inability to cope. Once someone found themselves in that situation, anything as minor as meeting an appointment with their probation officer or any police contact resulted in being put back in jail for someone who was never a criminal to begin with.
Why does this documentary use the past tense about ECT? It can still be given in the UK without the patients consent. At least 6000 ECT treatments were given in 2012.
I am not sure how much has changed. My beloved 22 yr old granddaughter has been in and of locked wards in psychiatric hospitals for the last 6 years. She has anxiety and depression because she is autistic and this was not diagnosed until this year. She has made several suicide attempts and self harms. Her section has not been lifted because of fear of what she could do to herself. But she is a very intelligent girl who plays several instruments. She has no occupational therapy and is just left with her damaging thoughts and on a lot of psychotic drugs 24 hours a day. She has loving caring parents whose hands are tied because she is an adult. The hospital staff are kind but they are destroying her. There is no talk of her moving on in the foreseeable future.
The worst times was the 1800s Victorian Era when you could be institutionalized just for being a female. If you weren't a good wife and you didn't cook or clean, asylum. If you didn't have sex with your husband, asylum. If you didn't agree with your father, asylum. Homosexuals were also locked up as well. Also, the treatment for women was actually how they invented sex toys because they believed if a woman didn't orgasm then she would get hysteria, so they would do things to make them orgasm in an attempt to "cure" them. So let's add sexual abuse to the list. Although a fun fact is vibrators were invented as a way for therapists/doctors to help "relieve" women of "hysteria" without having to physically touch them.
Very depressing documentary, but I knew what I was getting into. I think more awareness should be made on this subject so that these poor people are never forgotten. Mistreatment of the mentally ill sadly still goes on today. It's not just the "underdeveloped" countries. 1st world countries are just as guilty.
DarkwingsDesending Indeed, If you study just a little bit about these kind of places any faith in humanity that's left in you will go. Places like the Topeka state hospital or New jersey's asylum during the time of Henry Cotton (interesting character, Evil in the most literal meaning of the word) were actually insane, the suffering of the patients it was just indescribable. Hell is a happy place in comparison.
I agree. I'm actually well versed when it comes to the conditions of insane asylums. I've read countless books. Very few of them mentioned what happened to those with "battle fatigue" though.
DarkwingsDesending Sorry for that, I made the same mistake of being well-versed in the subject, when you are interested in those topics you will definitely become quite the cynical person :P
I work on many psychiatric wards, sadly many patients pose real risks to themselves and others when allowed into the community. When you take into account Rochford hospital houses 125 patients in an area where the surrounding population is in excess of 60,000, statistics tell you that most of the very ill will never get the treatment they need. The stigma of mental illness continues to exist and having experienced depression, without hospital treatment, I doubt if I would have recovered as I had little or no family support at the time...
I have been to Rochford hospital - I disagree that many patients have risk of harm to themselves or others. Just give them the right drugs and they're no risk anyway. Whilst at Rochford hospital I heard a female patient choking on Haloperidol and apparently nothing was done to intervene. I saw police come one evening, to beat up a 17 year old man, and take him away. Blood pressure and heart rate taken 3 times a day there to watch for the cardiovascular changes and physical health problems that the (bad) drugs generate. I have cannabis, my secret to be physically health trouble free, and people don't always know when I'm on it as I use mouthwash. I refuse blood pressure and heartbeat and oxygen level monitoring, I check my own health. I know more than most doctors do hope to make a mentally afflicted person "better" in less than 4 minutes. I know the exact chemicals required.
To that woman who lost four years, I just send you so much love & am so sorry these people experimented on you. It’s disgusting. No human deserves psych anything, but brain surgery like this just WOW.
I'm about to watch it as I grew up in the grounds of a large and beautiful mental hospital where my Father worked. Some are locked up for very valid reasons - because they are a danger to society. My Father helped to bring in Care in the community and the idea was that people would be overseen and kept medicated. Now there have been so many cut backs that dangerous unmedicated people are out there with very little supervision.
Horrifying. I had an aunt who had electric shock therapy many times, and hubby had an aunt who had electric shock therapy, was locked away in Sea Cliff, and only saved from lobotomy because some short stories she wrote before incarceration won a prestigious award. She was never mad. She was Aspie. Fortunately she got out and lived a long and interesting life, continuing to write. My aunt was a mess for the rest of hers.
I love these documentaries, without knowing the mistakes and ill behaviors of the past, there would be no opportunities to advance foward! I worked at our local mental facility, and we had to watch shows like this to really appreciate the standards today, as well as being able to have empathy for the patients!!!
The last 3 years I have been hospitalized 23 times because I have paranoid schizophrenia and I am so happy that the place i was, was nothing like that horrible hospital! Even though most of the hospital is over 300 years old
I'm in college to become a mental health counselor, and I want to work in a hospital setting w/kids and teenagers.I'm appauled that destroying a part of a person's brain was ever considered the 'humane' thing to do.
Interesting, My great grandfather ended his life at High Royds though I only found out when researching family history as people did not speak of such things back then. He is buried in High Royds cemetery Buckle Lane Menston. Went to visit the place, High Royds is now converted into flats. The church at the cemetery was been renovated by a volunteer, he said his mother was a patient there though he never knew, the family said she had died while he was an infant though she was alive when he was 21 he never got to see her, so sad.
I have anxiety, depression and epilepsy. Some of these monstrosities still exist. If it weren't for my parents I could've ended up in one of those horrors. That's why I was so terrified of telling them anything. To this day, being committed against my will is one of my greatest fears.
It’s doesn’t take a huge leap to think people in the future will view some of our current treatments for mental illnesses this way, but still we’ve come a long way, I’m glad to be living in this time
I was going to say that I am shocked that these places were in existence so recently, but then while watching this, I suddenly remembered that we had two of these "institutions" right here in North Dakota that weren't closed until the late 1980's or early 1990's. One was called San Haven, I can't remember the other. I even remember visiting San Haven in the mid 80's with my boss, who ran a cleaners, and we were there to buy some of their used laundry equipment. Set on a beautiful land, it was huge, and I could hear endless moans and groans from the windows above. And we had to traverse a very long, dark steam tunnel to get to the building we needed to get to. The place was scary as hell, and for some reason, I guess I had blocked out the memory until just now. I have no idea what happened to all those patients when the place closed, though I do have a vague memory of some controversy about it. Anyway, thanks for putting this up. Not a happy thing to know about, but we need to know, and, in my case, need to be reminded.
I slept for 36 hours straight on 200 mg of Seroquel... Made my body so heavy I damn near pissed myself cause I couldn't get up. Wild stuff. I couldn't imagine 800mg
I have bipolar 1 and on 400 mgs and im fine. I would not sleep for weeks without it and was psychotic. Maybe you should realize some people with severe mental illness need high dosages, especially with a disorder thats like being on bath salts lol get on my level m8.
I got up to 200 but I've tried so hard to get that lowered. It makes me sleep like a baby but the side effects just aren't worth it for me.. finding the sweet spot is tough. Meds help but it's annoying when you have to take them when you wake up and before sleeping.
@@squashedshibber2684 Don’t take comments about medication personally. Medications have a very different affect on different people and different problems.
Thank you again for the stigma being revamped! I had my hair cut a year ago and told hairdresser that I have BPD and she actually recoiled. I told her that “mental illness is not contagious. You will not catch anything from me” X x
My sister has BPD and bipolar only just been diagnosed but I’ve learnt how to handle her illness and support her no matter what happens if only there family members felt the same a lot of suffering would have been prevented
Sad what happened to patients in these places around the world. American asylums were no better. The worst part is some patients weren't even mental, just handicap
Hi Alicia Brown, your post implied that you knew about American assyrum and patients that are not mentally ill but happened to be in there. May I know how do you know about this? And what make you believe that they are just handicapped?
Sadly many psychiatric hospitals for inpatients are still very lock and key, strict with visiting hours, little outside time, patients having meals with convicts that find themselves admitted, no protection from verbal sexual abuse.
Oh boy that completely horrible what a poor unfortunate human beings had to suffer though such uneducated society. Therefore l hope that future generations will remember and show more compassion 🙏
We had the same sort of problems here in Portugal. But I still believe that giving a "home" a "safe haven" to some of these patients would be best for some. I think it depends on the social background: if the family is up to taking care of them, good. But what about the others? The family might not be up to the task, they might not want the task, or have the conditions, or the money for it.
I look to people like Maggie and Jean as survivors and heroes of a broken system which sadly still exists today. My experience is much like Jean and after being misdiagnosed and overmedicated I was talked into consenting to bilateral ECT, undergoing dozens of treatments essentially turning me into a zombie. It took years to recover and my personality and interests are completely different. Dr. Peter Bregin has done incredible research into the harm of ECT that explains its “success” is the flattening of affect, or loss of symptom due to loss of personality, due to brain damage.
I see people commenting, "They thought these conditions and torture would help?" but you must understand. These patients were seen more as a nuisance than anything else. The main reason people dropped them off was not to be cured but to get rid of them. And then these asylums saw an opportunity to operate and experiment on patients who could not protest and who no one cared about. Asylums were basically big boarding houses for those whose families abandoned them.
Myathewolfeh1 On top of that: medical knowledge has advanced a lot in the last since then. Some doctors really did believe lobotomies would work, nit because they're cruel, but because they didn't know better.
I'm pretty sure that in the future people will look back at us and be like "how could they do that? That's cruel and inhuman."
And don't forget that those expiremts helped medicine to advance. Just like other human experiments. They are cruel. They are inhumane. They shouldn't have happened. But they helped modern medicin.
Myathewolfeh1 8
very sad....i couldn't live with myself..
exactly, that’s what people seem to miss. they weren’t trying to torture them even though looking back on it that’s what society sees it as. i think of it as more of human experimentation than helpful.
Myathewolfeh1 i thought most people knew that. it’s rather obvious from the start when that man was talking about experimentation
And nowadays you can turn up to hospital suicidal and self-harming and get told that you haven't tried anything so you're obviously OK and sent home at 3am.... old system was bad, new system is bad...
Sarah Gooda old system was bad but we'll funded new system is good but hugely underfunded to the point that it seems the government is trying to destroy the nhs
Sarah Gooda I agree things have gotten better depending which country and state but there is so much more that has to be done I've been in and out of hospitals and one treatment center theres a long way to go but at least we got rid of some old practices
Now they call u attention seekers
People who say they’ll commit suicide are more likely to not do it
Really? I know of several people that used to write regularly on Facebook that they wanted to end their life and they succeeded.
My distant Uncle, who fought in WW1 and lost his brother during the same war, had terrible PTSD when he came home. The doctor he saw wanted him to be put into one of these places but fortunately my whole family rallied around and made sure he didn't go, I am very proud of them for standing by him and not taking the easy option of sending him away to die in one of these awful places. They loved him and were proud of him, as am I.
thank god,,,
Lovely story. A supportive family is crucial for people suffering from mental illness.
I wish my folks protected me from psychiatrist too 😞
its a miracle that more men didnt come back from the Great War beyond help. all the horror they lived with day in and day out, i cant even fathom. just the smell of the trenches would be enough to do me in, let alone finding countless bodies while trying to dig in someplace.
@@kaiyin3842 ?
I work with the Mentally ill and have for 33 years and this video breaks my heart and pisses me off. I would never abuse any of them or watch anyone else do it.
👏👏👏 as an NHS mental health nurse now, it is completely unforgivable how those poor patients were treated. Most unforgivable was when some asylums let the public pay a fee to walk around the building and treating the patients like they were zoo attractions
I worked for a decade, 1989 to 1999, in a residential hospital for adults with learning disabilities, many of whom had been placed there as children in the 50s and 60s, some even further back in time. Quite often the parents had been advised to put their offspring in such places so they would receive 'appropriate care'. I'll always remember one elderly lady who'd been placed in the hospital at age 6 because she'd 'flashed her knickers' at the vicar! This was in about 1926, a time when authority was rarely questioned/challenged. Had she been a 6 year old today she'd have been put on the 'naughty step' at worst or people would've simply ignored such behaviour with a ' Silly girl'.This poor lady spent her entire life institutionalised, dying just before her 86th birthday! 20 years on and I still have an image of this little elderly lady who'd never known life in any other way.
My grandma had a great-aunt(?) who was institutionalised because she’d been caught conspiring to commit theft with the local vicar’s daughter. The latter got away scot-free.
This was before WW1. The relative was still inside when my uncle was born in 1967.
How whas her Life there then.
Wow... they really did put people away for anything. I don't understand why they would have dumped her at an asylum for that... or why they wouldn't have come back for her at some point unless they didn't want her to begin with.... which in turn is even more sad....
"If you talk to God, you're praying, but if God talks to you, you're schizophrenic." Lily Tomlin
+talitakoomi so what about clairvoyants ? Are they all ill ? just a question what do you think
+Emma Thomas they are just full of shit
Emma Thomas Hi. I don't think people who experiences paranormal phenomena are mentally ill- and psychic manifestations are a paranormal phen. However, many psychiatrists/psychologists may classify them as such because of an inability to explain such events scientifically. Science and spirit are just two sides of the same coin that have trouble seeing each other.
talitakoomi Oh, psychiatrists and doctors don't lack any explanation on the subject of ''paranormal experiences'', you just don't like 'em or ''agree'' with 'em. Big diference.
+Jason Smith science is just human knowledge, but how far has that really gotten us
I've got bipolar/schizoaffective and OCD intrusive thoughts. It's terrifying to think that if I were born only 50-100 years ago, I would have ended up in an asylum and I probably wouldn't be as stable, happy, and healthy as I am now. Thank goodness for modern medical practice.
Yes indeed. Modern psychiatric treatment has definitely helped me. Keep trucking!
i know..i have a few ..this makes me better ..i wouldn't want sent there..
God bless you!
Those diagnostic terms didn't exist then
Wow I'm sorry you have those disorders but I'm glad you have a better life than some of the patients in this asylum
I don't understand how someone can call themselves a NURSE and torture their patients.
+Becky Brown I was more precisely talking about when a patient was assaulted by the nurses. I've seen mean nurses and am started my nursing studies next year. I would never allow a nurse to be rude especially not beat on any patient. I do believe that a lot of nurses from these asylums have lots of regrets for not protecting the patients when they were being attacked (physically and or mentally). I don't think I would be able to sleep at all.
+Dominique Freeman That is disgusting. I hope you are doing everything you can to make them pay. Children need patience most of all, but those with disorders need even more patience.
+Dominique Freeman As a teacher for students with special needs, your comment angers me. Of course, I'm not angry at you, but angry at the teachers who abused your child. I hesitate to even put a hand on a students' shoulder, much less beat one. I would direct, redirect and redirect again a student to the appropriate behavior verbally and only touch a child, if he or she doesn't understand and the touch is always gentle and careful, just to direct the student to his/her chair. Most of them have trouble sitting on the chair. *giggles* I can't blame them, we are organic beings and we are attracted to organic things, so naturally the students sit on the wooden desks and not on the plastic chairs. I stated this once to a teacher who walked in who was telling my student to sit down on his chair, and she didn't like my humor too much. *raspberry, making a loud farting sound* She is a general ed teacher, so I forgive her a tad bit for not understanding the humor of it all. :/ Many students approach me and have an understanding that I'm there to help in whatever they need. I'm not just a teacher who is certified to teach students with special needs, but I was once a student in special ed, so I have a deeper understanding on how they feel and think than most teachers do. That is why I cringe when I hear stories like yours and I have to use all of my will and might not to burst out and hurt those teachers who abuse their authority and rank.
+Yusiley Sierra I respect your opinions and I respect your comment. +1
+DropsOfPluto They are simply indoctrinated into the mental illness religion and belief system and not given a choice about it, if they choose to work there. The story at the beginning of the programme was telling, in that the nurse stated "If you work around shit, you become shit." This justifying while blatant and ought to be shocking don't shock enough consciences out there. The INDUSTRY is exactly the SAME as it has always been. We need a veritable REVOLUTION to OVERTHROW these power-mongering fanatical "medical helpers" which contrariwise are RUINOUS to ALL OF SOCIETY.
Maggie Chapman (36 mins) deserves a medal. Absolutely amazing woman, I hope she has found some peace in her life.
Shock treatments and lobotomies are the worst part of this era to me.
ECT is still used and as a nurse I've seen some remarkable results from using it. It's not like "One flew over the cuckoos nest". It's much improved now.
Samantha Marie They're banned and any mental health practitioner who practices such acts will be prosecuted in any country (not sure about Liberia and North Korea though). If you don't live in a third world human-classified country, I'm sure you won't encounter these awful treatments towards the mentally unwell.
QuantumStriker 003 That's not true at all. It's still used for extreme depression. Although now they sedate the patient as it's more humane and effective. It's not such a traumatic event for them. All you have to do is a little research to see it's still practiced today. Just not as widespread or brutal as it used to be.
ECT isn't always unnecessary, ICT is though
Samantha Marie I suffered from severe depression for over 40 years. I finally requested ECT. This resulted in prompt relief.
ECT can be life-saving for many people. It's not a cure. I still have to have treatments from time to time. But it lets me live far more comfortably than had been possible before.
The biggest remaining asylum in Britain is now called the Houses of Parliament
Hey you're absolutely correct!
Comedian, eh?
your so right it is the seat of crazy
totally agree, am serious
Don't they use that cutting-edge treatment where they let the inmates run the place?
This is terrifying! I think the medical professionals are madder than the patients!
sammy I agree!
***** dominant*
sammy tell me about it, I've worked in these hospitals myself back in the 80s, then in community " care" homes and now on the recieving end of the system follwoing mental health problems myself. Oh yes the system still sucks and abuse and neglect still go on, I've been a whistle blower myself and still have flash backs of the poor people who were treated badly by supposed staff. Did manage to help get 2 or 3 nut job "nurses" put behind bars for a bit though.
sammy I agree
Alison Browning Are you unstable?
What an eye opener. I've suffered from depression for most of my adult life (I'm 55), but with a combination of medication and good friends I'm able to cope for the most part. Thank God that times have changes from that barbaric regime. Excellent documentary and thanks for posting.
I was locked in an Asylum for 15 years. I was very badly Institutionalized. I was put into a flat at the end of the 1990s. During that period of time the world had be become digital. I then became pregnant. After an abusive traumatic childhood and a traumatic 15 years in the Asylum, I was exceedingly vulnerable and unable to protect myself. There was very little Community Care and what there was was very sporadic. It was 7 years before I felt the feeling of 'institutional' had faded. I never had any therapy during those years. I have CPTSD and Bipolar 2 Disorder. These were diagnoses recieved years after the Asylum closed down and we were tipped into a society that contained an unforgiving stigma. 15 years spent on many many different medications from clopromazine, largactil, carbamazepine, halaoeredol etc. Those 15 years whers as traumatising as my childhood yet in a different way. I was abused and felt I had no human rights. I slept in a mixed sex dormitory and was locked away and I believe punished for being sexually abused as a child. I am now 53 years old and believe that our mental health system is an utter disgrace.
I'm sorry no one protected you
I’m so so sorry you had to go through all that. Breaks my heart 😞
My wife worked at Helingly Hospital as a Nurse. She would dispute the impression this video gives and considers that the patients were cared for well with the caveat that too long a stay would result in them becoming institutionalised.
She was nearly dismissed shortly before the hospital closed for whistleblowing to the press. Under her care was a 54 year old patient called Wendy Cole. Wendy had been admitted to the hospital at the age of 2 1/2. (Yes, that’s two and a half). She was the product of incest. Hellingly had been her whole life. In its entirety. She was also therefore a product of Hellingly.
It was determined by the powers that be that on cost grounds she should be returned to the community. But East Sussex County Council refused to take responsibility for her on the the grounds that she was born in West Sussex.
My wife, therefore, was given the job of taking her to Brighton and basically dumping her there in a dirty flat . Of course Wendy was distraught and unable to cope. She died two years later.
My wife was forced to sign a document of secrecy but decided to ignore it. True story. Nothing ever came of this outrage.
Thats so awful :(
I am so sorry to hear about Wendy. Unfortunately, “dumping” mentally ill patients are not uncommon. It’s done when there’s no insurance or money to care for the patient.
Lots of these big old buildings were closed during Thatcher era budget cuts. What a creepy old pile, like a Kirkbride building
God Bless your wife for going to the press with the truth.
Mad respect to all those who went through this torture. Now and then you get a glimpse of how sick and twisted humans can be and it makes you despair. Had I been born at an earlier time, I'd have been in one of those awful places. I can't and don't want to imagine what that must have been like. To struggle with mental illness is torture in its own right, but to be subjected to these repulsive treatments and abuse and ignorance is just barbaric. This has truly made me realise how lucky I am to live in these times with a mental illness. At least there's a strive to raise awareness and acceptance. I hope that continues.
Plus if somebody came from the wrong country they could be sterilized.
Alpha
Same, its crazy to think its just some decades ago
I've just re-watched this video again (for about the 50th time) and still find some of it quite shocking. Thanks for all your views and comments... It's been interesting to see other people's perspectives on this. Thanks for watching and keep sharing, John :)
No Imagination awesome reply man.
good question. i know my wife won't.
This is tame compaired to victorian asylums which were like zoos
***** i got it
JLO Productions 50 times? See a shrink.
I'm so grateful for these documentaries exposing the mistreatment in these facilities. There's no excuse for mental and physical abuse, especially when it comes to the sick
Still happens today, we'll hear about it in 50 years time.
Wow, poor Maggie, burning a piece of her brain out just because caring for five kids, probably while living on the edge of poverty got her nerves bad. I went through some very bad times in life where I am sure my personality suffered and I wasn't the most stable person, but what I needed was help to live, emotional support for grief, and financial assistance to handle bills, not a hot probe burning a hole in my brain. Like the one lady said, she felt empty and meaningless being pushed into a dead end job, in a go nowhere world, with no opportunity for self improvement, and since the great minds of England (or anywhere) weren't interested in helping peasants improve their lot in life, the answer was to say anyone who didn't want all that nothing is mentally ill and needs to be in an asylum. She was probably very intelligent and adventuresome but trapped in a world where only a select few could seek higher education and professional work. Just shows that politicians would rather pay to keep people down than to lift them up.
Right? She probably had post partum depression and was overworked and under appreciated
These type of documentaries I think are always important to see... There are so many stories of abuse in these type of wards we will probably never know about. So hearing about the stories from witnesses is the closest thing we can get to knowing what went on. Tragic but important it's not forgotten what went on
Shit so glad these places aren't open anymore. I have depression and I would have probably ended up somewhere like this. This breaks my heart to think people were treated like this :(
***** Exactly.
***** Not so clever ; perhaps not. .Devious Always . The phychiatrists hid behind a doctorate and held a position of power . And still do , but in a lesser way. .I instead , have memories triggered by and from these genuine comments . Not so much the documentary ; but by the kind responses of you kids today. Thank you. x
***** The government may make new rules for private and ' Public ' school, but the contents therin are always going to be the same Carl. . I have no mind left to dwell , or play on. Bilateral ECT on 18 occasions , took care of that. I'm OK now, totally alone but better and resigned than most. .Especially the young ones who have yet to live their twighlight lives. Take care of yourself. x
***** Agreed, I was in private education for 10 years . Thanks and you.
*****
Their not treated like prisoners unless they are ambulatory, Most "baby insitutions" usually rely on throwing the patients who are 'safe enough" and can take care of themselves without assistance. They mostly walk around or find activities to do in public.
I just don't understand how it's assumed that a 'one size fits all' approach is going to suit every person with a mental illness.
Some people can thrive in the community, others need a little more support and some are so ill they may need some level of in patient care.
This was before treatment was even a concern and people just wanted the mentally ill off the streets, it was a case of out of sight, out of mind so these were usually hospital in name only. By the early 1800's the mentally ill were left to die or euthanized and by the 1960's drugs had given us a way to manage the majority of the illnesses, but between roughly 1860 and 1960 was the century of compassion where we finally decided it wasn't humane to just forget about them so we built large prisons (for lack of a better term) and forgot about them anyway, as if that was humane or compassionate either. As the narrator said the last few decades from the 1930's to 60's saw treatments finally being offered but most were experimental like lobotomies and electrotherapy, it would be the breakthroughs in drugs that finally killed off the asylums. Thankfully.
Rob Fraser The asylums were an extension of work houses
Todd Sadler Yes I agree. Anyone who said anything against people in the establishment was sent to this kind of place. 'inmates' had no say in their treatments such as the barbaric lobotomies and electro convulsive treatments.
Mindrolling, I'm not sure about inpatient care in US or anywhere will be good for patients. I'm afraid that the psychiatric industry has gone to far with greed. I was a patient of the inhouse care and saw everything inside the hospital. They didn't care for me but made me sicker. In the hospital, I was struggled to stay alive. Please read my story and share to world, let me be the last victim of this madness of FRAUD!!!!
My mother was a psychiatric nurse and she was (is) a horrible person. A lot of staff in psychiatric institutions are there because they themselves are strange, sometimes with narcissistic and sadistic personalities: they want to be in control of people and like the medical 'scene'.
I used to be disgusted at some of the things my mother would say about the patients.
Damn. I've got bipolar, for a while it was pretty bad, I was in hospital for it. But I was treated with compassion and respect, put on medicine, put in connection with community support and therapy and went on with my life, I can't imagine my life if I'd been born in an earlier time.
***** No, actually I am not a victim at all. I am a person with an illness that was treated. No different than a diabetic taking insulin. I was disabled at the time. I nearly died. I was not subjected to numerous blood tests, as it was not necessary. I was not experimented upon. I was given the front like treatment, when it didn't work, I was given another, which worked wonderfully. I lead a full and happy life because of my treatment.
Things have improved at least in that respect, last year I had to go to CBT sessions due to anxiety and depression as well as anger issues. I'm a different more cheerful person because it allowed me to get things off my chest and openly talking about it to someone has helped in so much ways
I did CBT therapy as well, I have OCD as well as bipolar and I found CBT immensely helpful, more so than any meds I tried. I would highly recommend it to anyone who has anxiety.
you were very lucky....
Probably the mental institution typing this
it's one thing reading about the horrendous things that went on, but another when you actually see and hear from the individuals themselves, I am studying mental health, and this has brought a lot of what I have read about to life, it's given me a timeline that was previously unclear. So grateful to be given the opportunity to learn from everyone that made the programme possible.
I have borderline personlity, ADHD and aspergers - I also work with adults who have learning disabilities and to think any of us would of been shoved into places like this. It's heartbreaking
I, for one, think that they threw the baby out with the bathwater when they completely closed facilities. I worked in Mental health for 20 years (in programs that support mentally ill people in their own apartments). I think that well run, humane communities for the mentally ill would solve some of the loneliness that they endure and assure that people would eat proper, nutritious food and take the prescribed medication that keeps them functional. There is no way that outside support a few times a week can ensure proper care.
TheLeatherChannel totally agree
TheLeatherChannel I have an aunt that has severe schizophrenia and would function exceedingly well in a group facility that was humane and supportive. She doesn't do well at all in normal daily life and stays at home and is exceedingly lonely. She'd thrive in a place where she can take her medicine and ensure she's getting the best care.
I grew up in a major city and saw the streets slowly become the new asylum. Seeing men and women living rough, ranting and raving, some self medicating, and so on is truly saddening.
There cannot be a one size fits all approach to treating persons with mentally illness. Outpatient works for some but some need inpatient treatment plan and simple.
I now live in a small agricultural town and see the same thing on a smaller scale due to a smaller populace but the behavior is the same.
The most disturbing of all is there simple isn't anywhere for those suffering to that degree to go. Ever try getting inpatient help for a loved one? Be prepared to have the door shut in your face. There simply aren't the facilities.
I have a dear friend who works at a Fortune 50 not 500 tech company, highly educated engineer with excellent insurance try to get her husband committed for a simple evaluation. Nope! They asked if he was suicidal or homicidal which he quickly assured them he wasn't. They were sent home. He killed himself in a very public way a day later at Christmas 2016.
They had it all- money, success, excellent insurance and living in a major city where they sought help from the best of the best. My heart breaks for her.
We need community based outpatient for high functioning patients but we also need inpatient facilities for the most fragile of patients.
We are supposed to be a rich country, a developed country, a nation others look too yet it feels we've stepped back in time by several hundred years with our current treatment aka no treatment regime. The streets are the new open air asylums and they shouldn't be.
Gathering No Moss finally some one who is informed to comment!
@@atomicstyle7344 that awkward moment when not even money can get you decent mental health care.
I find the history of asylums fascinating. not in a good way though. Sure, the buildings are gorgeous (in a terrifying, gothic way) and I'd love to look around one someday with a camera in hand, urban exploring style. However, it still boggles my mind how we could have been SO misguided about some of the "treatments" we made patients suffer through. I suppose an argument for hindsight could be made, but it doesn't take a genius to see the difference between cured and permanently/temporarily sedated.
I watched a film recently called Stonehearst Asylum (based on an Edgar Allen Poe story) and while I understand that the entire thing is fictitious, some of the discussions and ideas in the film really got me thinking... It's well worth watching if you're into psychology/psychiatry :)
ty ill look into it
Hope you enjoy :) The cast is pretty A-List too!
You should watch shutter island, it's about a mental asylum and it has dicaprio in it
Did that one a while back - Leo's one of my favourite actors; I've watched most of his films :) But as far as asylums go (especially the morality of how they treat the patients) Stonehearst Asylum is waaay better. Plus who can say no to Ben Kingesly and Michael Caine?
Leo's amazing
I think people in prison had a better life.
Depends on the years in prison. Yes prison today is better.
@@nesseihtgnay9419 in prison today you can txt the drugs you want via a phone and drone app
i was just thinkiing the same thing...
Depends on the prison. Check the documentary on devil's island. You would rather be in a asylum then that place.
GENIUS!
As someone who has been into the abandoned High Royds building I must say that it's beautiful yet terrifying at the same time.
wait, can you spill beans? what was it like? how did you get there?
I was wondering if you could elaborate further on what was "beautiful"? That one threw my curiosity for a loop. The "terrifying" I can understand.
@@sashawalker4492 There were certain large areas within the building that you could stand in the middle of and think....wow....for example, the main lobby is a large area with extremely high ceilings. The clocktower is also a beautiful area to visit as you're quite literally behind the clock on the top floor. It is for the most part, terrifying though, but the way some of the inside is, is quite stunning, space-wise. Especially the theatre area.
The joke told me by a person in the American mental health field: what's the difference between the patients and the staff? The patients get better and go home.
Brilliant.
I've heard that one before. Lol
Now does anybody need to go to the toilet before we press play? Say so now, because we're not going to stop halfway through
lol
465marko i need a dump can we pause
babyitscold outside
Thats amazing. Your nan sounds nice. Thats so cute. And amazing.
Used to call my Nan
Nanners. She was so nice. Didn't know her long though.
Pissed in my pants. Further instructions are needed.
Well, I'm two years too late, but now that you mention it, I better go. Then get a snack before the feature presentation begins.
Okay...ready.
This sounds like it could be made into a horror movie, no body could make this up and this would make a scary video game. I feel sorry for all the people who had to go through that nightmare.
House on Haunted Hill...
There are many, many movies on Asylums and their patients and/or escapees. Grade B productions accentuating the "evil" insane people and their gory deeds. Seems not very many people have learned a whole lot.
Nikita Heredia asylum ahs you should watch it
serendipidus1 outlast. play this game
Outlast
- being put in a place like that would help depression??
Right? that's what I was thinking. depressed people can't be locked away, it'll just make them worse. they need to get out and actually enjoy their life.
Heather Rose
- true!
No it would make it worse, the idea of being exluded from mainstream society and missing everything can be very offputing to most, and then being labeled with several stuff would lead to a lot of discriminatory experience. Trust me I know,, also depression is a mix of different issues going on, it's not something that can be helped by pills. I remained as quiet as I could to avoid being labeled, but they did anyway. All because a person wants to die, he or she is locked up left alone with horrible thoughts (now that's insane)
***** right? I have severe GAD and Panic disorder, me staying in their for months, let alone a day would drive me insane xd
i have depression, PTSD, severe GAD and psychosis - one day in there and id go insane (well more than i already am)
I dont know how I got here but it’s 4am and I’m content.
Same here it just popped out on my feed
@@gabriellorenzosantos2805 it's like 11pm and I'm here like wtf
I searched "madhouse" for the Anthrax song but I'm watching this instead lmao
A double edged sword: Keep the asylums open and patients suffer inside. Close them down and they were left to fend for themselves...
It should have been humane with positive activities and hobbies just a positive change with a homely feel.
They needed to keep the buildings open, just stop torturing people! They still needed shelter, food, clothes, and caregivers.
@Ayva Waddell they get abused and raped in the streets to, comitting crime, killing people, starving, homeless, left to rot. what dont you get about that?
Many people people working in the old mental hospitals were just as mental as their patients or worse.
you got that right..
Their not mental they are psychopaths
By scientific study, it's now shown that 79% of high school students feel the same anxiety as mental patients did in the 1800s. Now, thinking about it, if that's an average pupil's stress level, how much worse are those with diagnosed anxiety? If we had the Victorian standard levels for locking people away in an asylum, I would honestly be locked up for life. Anyone else...? o_o
***** Not off the top of my head. It was on some TV documentary a while ago.
*****
You could always Google it...
Never mind. I Googled it and it only led to several comments the above person made where she posted the exact same comment, but I couldn't find any literature supporting it. :/ So, color me dubious also, I guess.
***** What is wrong with you people today and all this proof shit...open your eye's and look around and smell the roses...the damn truth is staring you right in the face everytime you go out into society...
***** It's only going to be getting worse....They have big plans for us all
***** We will be soon..It'll continue to get wore and worse...
Autistic people in here must off struggled like mad cause off sensory issues in crowded spaces (I am autistic and Id be really bad in these places)
+Dylan Whitton autism doesn't pass down.
+Dylan Whitton slipknots the best
Yeah, it would've been a living nightmare. It's why they 'had' to use such invasive and authoritarian practices: patients would act out because they were living in hellish circumstances, but staff had no fucking idea how or why, so they just did whatever seemed to shut up the patient in the short term. Still see it happen every day in disability services: a client has a 'behaviour', all the focus in on what the client did wrong, not what we did to agitate the client to the point of violence. 'oh, but we don't have TIME to talk to them about what's made them so upset they've been screaming for 4 hours! Can't we just give them some more meds to keep them quiet and happy?'. Sickeningly lazy.
Also lol, a slipknot fan telling others not to breed...
+Agdune Yeah. it's so sad.
Neat
I respect the people talking about their experiences and admitting what they have seen and done. It must have been difficult.
My grant aunty had been forced into a mental hospitals in new Zealand when she refused to marry a man he managed to get her into one. He die and she was let out and married and lives well. But she was never the same, she never talked about what happened, but she cried when she thought no one was around. It sick
I have panic disorder and agoraphobia (thankfully now under control for the most part).
I feel so sad for that poor lady who ended up been committed for 25 years for panic with agoraphobia...I'm just so lucky I got ill in the 2000s rather than in the 1950s as my story could have been so different.
Yes Alison, some people do read the comments following these videos.
But for myself, I would thank you for both your courage as well as your candour in deciding to share both your experiences as well as your feelings.
I understand your situation very well.
Please allow me to suggest to you that though you may be perhaps very concerned, even very frightened, even with current approaches, and I've no doubt your aware of many, I would like to feel competent enough to say to you, that your particular struggle, even without any 'treatments' whatever they may even collectively be, will pass. They'll pass Alison. Stay strong 👍.
As a bipolar person that has been in the psychiatric system in the United States, its my opinion that this documentary really misses the mark on the most important realities of mental health and the mental health system. The documentary is essentially a social morality play on either complete incarceration or complete freedom (which the show insinuates is medication free) which is very much an outsider's view of the situation. The reality is that mental illnesses are chronic, lifelong conditions that, as of yet, have no cure. These conditions need to be regulated and controlled with medication and doctor visits. It's not about "lock them all up or send them all home." Was the old system barbaric? Sadly, it often was and positive changs were mandatory and have, in most cases, occurred. The documentary also insinuates that the closing down of hospitals was all a good thing because "people got to go home." Well, the truth is that many people in hospitals had no homes and ended up on the streets as homeless people, untreated, unwanted and very mentally ill. This was epidemic in the 80s. It's a very complicated situation, not black or white as the program implies.
+Jeffrey Riley Thanks for this insightful response.
+Jeffrey Riley Spot on, I agree completely
Man, I wrote a novel with that post.
+Jeffrey Riley thank you for your insightful response.
+Jeffrey Riley This was wonderful. I learned a lot from reading it. Your efforts to educate are not wasted.
These places killed my Grandmother. My mother would talk of her being beat on the head with blunt objects and given the shock treatments. Very barbaric. Not necessary. My poor Grandmother. Never got to meet her.
Polly Anna many your grandmother needed a good gobbing, only joking , the fact is the abused happened in these places all the time , I mean whos going to listen to a mental patient , 🤔🤔
I am a healthcare professional and found this programme disturbing, fascinating and informative. So many lessons were learned, and so many have yet to be learned
Being in the psychiatric system from a young age I am so glad I never had to go through any of this. I have been admitted to psychiatric hospitals twice and I don't know where I would be without them! It's great how things have changed but horrible that people had to be treated this way.
fallonfailure do they really make it better? :o
That poor woman in the institution because she had panic attacks, the worst being agoraphobia. It is scary as hell (panic attacks) if only explained to a patient, they, the patient would have a better understanding of what is wrong with them. Nowadays it is treated with an anxiety pill. This is now but not back then. How horrible for that lady. The young woman went in for a week of rest and ended up being their for 5 yrs. Terrible. Seems like some of these drs have classic symptoms of mental illnesses and to beat up on patients, again terrible. I think you go in normal and come out with an illness. Psychiatry is not an exact science. Certain drugs do help but there is seldom 1 on 1 discussions, unless you are wealthy. I think psychiatrists need to learn a lot more before they treat people.
ruclips.net/video/c8omryHCn1Y/видео.html
I trained as a Psychiatric Nurse in Surrey, England from 1981 to end 1984 - the tail end of "institutionalised care", so to speak. There is no doubt that the closure of so-called "mental hospitals" was long overdue but it was not possible to achieve community based care sooner than it happened, due to the wholesale stigmatisation of the mentally ill, by society at large. The Victorian mores of "out of sight, out of mind" lasted well into the 1970's - much longer indeed than its counterpart, Victorian sexual-repression.
Horrific what they went through but so interesting to watch.
I was locked up in the psych ward in 2016, on 3 different occasions for my schizophrenia. It honestly was not too far off this video... it felt eerily similar watching this. My dad used to be a military prison guard in the army and he said he could barely stand to see me in there because it felt worse than prison. The abuse was a thing too, you get treated like and illness not a human. Had all your legal rights taken away from you. Sad really. And they also still want to do electric shock on me next year :)
can your dad get you out of there? my mum always calls the ambulance on me for no rhyme or reason 😞
This forcing thing is immoral and brutal. It should be voluntarily. Why? to avoid abuse, corruption. Mandatory is recipe for abuse.
This is so sad, I used to work in a home and some of the stories they had about being in these places were horrific, some were put in for being deaf ,some were put in by their spouse when there was nothing wrong with them.
And we actually haven't gone much further today. Sure we have a few more medicines but the stigma surrounding mental health, especially depression, prevents any real help or work. Instead we choose to sweep the mentally unstable under rugs and ignore them. Things must change.
I worked in a mental facility much like that. It was disparaging. I loved working there because I learned lot. There were many patients just dumped. Early 70s. Shock therapy was on the same floor where worked. I witnessed many ECT . That is nothing compared to other things I saw. On the geriatric unit, many men killed their spouses. They were considered to old to go jail. Those ones were cold blooded killer. Others were in dementia caused by syphilis One of the worst wards was where they kept adults with Severe Down Syndrome, eating gruel, smelling like shit because they were all in diapers. No training at a basic level. It was hard to look at. The stench of feces in the air was always there. We had serial killers too. I worked forensics for a while, and . My desk was in a cage. The prisoners were seriously like Silence of the Lambs. I also worked on a split ward and the nurses could be cruel. One nurse kicked this elderly lady in the butt and said hurry up, your like a old whore in heat. I used to take some home for dinner, but my parents were paranoid. There were plenty of people not meant to be there, his illness was he was deaf.
.
So with what you’ve just said, do you think that some people shouldn’t be roaming the streets freely? Community care.
The last few sentences you typed make no sense. Was it a She or He because it looks like 2 different people or did you mean to type Her instead. I'm confused
Two of my mothers sisters worked for many years at Highcroft Hospital, one lived at 43 Chudleigh road and the other within walking distance of the hospital, homes now built where the hospital once stood should never hols any seances, many "Paitents" died in their beds...... Both aunts often told stories about the psychiatric wards...
"Even if the work is slow and clumsy." WOWWWWWW
I find it interesting that in the end of the 1950s, they thought that mental illness no longer had the stigma. There are those who are still stigmatized by people who are not educated about this subject. Although more people have a mental illness or know someone who does, there are those who need medical help but won’t get help because of the stigma.
I am quite late to this video, but my dad used to work at Highroyds as an electrician. He's posted videos of walking around it. I went there once when I was young, not remembering much of it. It's a shame it's been turned into an estate, I would have loved to walk around it one last time, and really get a sense of the atmosphere and emotion.
I found this terrifying, and I'm only watching it. I hate rooms with white walls and lots of people, even more if it's in a hospital. Knowing you'd be drugged if you tried leaving or operated on if you were emotional, that's unforgivable. I know most needed a form of medicine, but most were over medicated. It's just shocking.
How the fuck could they possibly believe putting someone in a coma is treating any type of illness???
Unfortunately, that’s how science works - essentially in any field. Policies and regulations are often based on numerous errors and misconceptions.
As someone who has Asperger's Syndrome and rapid cycling Bipolar disorder, I am happy that I as not born at this time. My dad was and he was a victim of the US equivalent of this system. Rather than put up with side effects, he elected to suffer on his own and drink. My mother had a nursing background and had worked in a state hospital. Both of my parents looked out for me and made sure that I was not sent to a state school and that my treatments were humane. They were my voices when at times I couldn't always be. Now I have a drive to finish my legal education because I see that there is so much in the world that needs to be changed for the better.
this is what happened to my dear friend Bettie RIP Bet the stories she told me before she sadly passed away last year of the absolutely horrendous things they did to her in the 1970's and so many others like her in the name of treatment are beyond shocking poor beautiful Bettie she showed me a large L shaped scar on her forehead that she always kept hidden beneath her fringe where they performed completely unnecessary and utterly barbaric torturous procedures on her in the name of medical science truly horrific chills me to the bone she will never see justice but she is at peace now sleep well Bett we love and miss you so much
we've gone from one extreme to the other now. care in the community doesnt really work - -the mental health service is buckling because of lack of funding. There are people not getting the help they so desperately need. This is having a detrimental knock on effect with other services such as social care, ambulance services, general hospitals and police, who are all left to pick up the pieces - and all of whom are also terribly underfunded.
I have both worked in such places ( 1980s and early 90s ) and in community care homes, sadly human attitude never changes, just because the assylums are closed and are now fancy apartments does not mean the negative and bad attitudes have died with them,spent a lot of my nursing days whistle blowing on cruel staff who should not have worked in such places with those terrible attitudes, one day many of us will become vulnerable and ill and suffer things like Alzeimers and be at the mercy of others , It has always disturbed me how anyone who is not compassionate, humane and kind would go to work in such a job. I have also been on the recieving end myself having suffered mental problems and am a care in the community case myself, it's hard , I am on long term medication but thankfully not locked up, I fear for the future with some of the attitudes of politicians today towards the disabled, ill and vulnerable. We must look out for each other it is the only way forward for humanity as a whole.
not sure if i could be a nurse in anywhere i would be fighting them if i saw anyone being cruel to them........
Hello ✋
Maggie breaks my heart, they took advantage there. So glad she got her life on track, despite that awful abuse. I am SO thankful to God, all these changes took place that allow us to be part of our own treatment now. However, I am SO sorry poor souls had to go through it all so I could benefit. Joan is adorable. God love her.
To me it seems rediculous that people actually thought these BARBARIC treatments would help.
well how are mentall illness treated today? there not have some anti ds
As someone with bi polar 2 , EUPD and social anxiety. I am thankful for my wonderful GP and the help I have had from mental health team. No doubt 50 years ago I would have been locked away. Thankfully I'm stable and am a support worker for adults with learning difficulties and autism. Many of whom were in asylums 30 years ago now living in supported living and getting the care they need
Most people don't get the care they need though and are on the streets. I assume you are in the uk as you say EUPD not borderline.
The care in the uk is diabolical.
We had a beautiful gothic asylum near us. It was huge and in lovely big gardens. You never saw anyone go in or out. But if i missed the last bus home at night i used to have to walk past it. Then you could hear the screams and most god awful noises like trapped animals. It closed down about twenty five years ago and has been converted into luxury flats. But no money on earth would induce me into living in one.
Lancaster?
its no better nowadays ..ive suffered depression nd anxiety disorder for 30 years ,when my marriage broke down i found myself in mental health ward ..the staff were disgusting .treating us like animals .we were victims of rascism .and were subjected to ect and scary meetings where some of us were called frauds and liars and discharged in the rain late at night ,it was like prison ..some of us smoked but when we went to office to ask if we could go out for smoke were shooed away while the staff sat in office drinking tea ,we were constantly woken up by staff shining bright light into our rooms ,i saw one elderly patient slapped and thrown on floor and another pulled naked out of the bath and left shivering in the hallway how is this helping mental health patients ,we were told ...this is a 4 star hotel and you dont belong ...worst experiance of my life ..7 years on i still have nightmares ..i wasnt helped just bullied
That's horrific. I'm so sorry you went through that
That's plain horrible. You have my sympathies.
How terrible! In what year did that happen?
I've been on over 15 different medications that caused everything from akathesia to long qt syndrome. I'm only 21 years old and because of these medications a have a heart condition of a 70 year old that can kill me. Everyone was so worried about me ending my life or acting supposedly "crazy" when now all I want to do is live because I'm OFF those medications, but now tomorrow is definently not certain for me. Thank you "reformed" mental health system!
Here in the USA 'community care' was (and still is) an absolute disaster. Just as in Britain, in the end, it came down to money. The government just shifted the burden onto the local NGOs, that were immediately driven to the breaking point, and soon the streets were flooded with psychiatric patients who's only 'care in the community' became jails and the criminal justice system - an immediate revolving door for people who's only offense was the inability to cope. Once someone found themselves in that situation, anything as minor as meeting an appointment with their probation officer or any police contact resulted in being put back in jail for someone who was never a criminal to begin with.
Why does this documentary use the past tense about ECT? It can still be given in the UK without the patients consent. At least 6000 ECT treatments were given in 2012.
It works for some people.
I am not sure how much has changed. My beloved 22 yr old granddaughter has been in and of locked wards in psychiatric hospitals for the last 6 years. She has anxiety and depression because she is autistic and this was not diagnosed until this year. She has made several suicide attempts and self harms. Her section has not been lifted because of fear of what she could do to herself. But she is a very intelligent girl who plays several instruments. She has no occupational therapy and is just left with her damaging thoughts and on a lot of psychotic drugs 24 hours a day. She has loving caring parents whose hands are tied because she is an adult. The hospital staff are kind but they are destroying her. There is no talk of her moving on in the foreseeable future.
The 40-60's must have been a horrible time for a person who has mental illnesses or to have your family not want you or to care for you. disgusting
The worst times was the 1800s Victorian Era when you could be institutionalized just for being a female. If you weren't a good wife and you didn't cook or clean, asylum. If you didn't have sex with your husband, asylum. If you didn't agree with your father, asylum. Homosexuals were also locked up as well. Also, the treatment for women was actually how they invented sex toys because they believed if a woman didn't orgasm then she would get hysteria, so they would do things to make them orgasm in an attempt to "cure" them. So let's add sexual abuse to the list.
Although a fun fact is vibrators were invented as a way for therapists/doctors to help "relieve" women of "hysteria" without having to physically touch them.
Leah calm down, don´t be so hysteric...
+Dominique Freeman no, but I was trying to say that asylums and the torture had been going from the 1800s until the 1940s-even later.
Very depressing documentary, but I knew what I was getting into. I think more awareness should be made on this subject so that these poor people are never forgotten. Mistreatment of the mentally ill sadly still goes on today. It's not just the "underdeveloped" countries. 1st world countries are just as guilty.
DarkwingsDesending Indeed, If you study just a little bit about these kind of places any faith in humanity that's left in you will go. Places like the Topeka state hospital or New jersey's asylum during the time of Henry Cotton (interesting character, Evil in the most literal meaning of the word) were actually insane, the suffering of the patients it was just indescribable. Hell is a happy place in comparison.
I agree. I'm actually well versed when it comes to the conditions of insane asylums. I've read countless books. Very few of them mentioned what happened to those with "battle fatigue" though.
DarkwingsDesending Sorry for that, I made the same mistake of being well-versed in the subject, when you are interested in those topics you will definitely become quite the cynical person :P
agree
I work on many psychiatric wards, sadly many patients pose real risks to themselves and others when allowed into the community. When you take into account Rochford hospital houses 125 patients in an area where the surrounding population is in excess of 60,000, statistics tell you that most of the very ill will never get the treatment they need. The stigma of mental illness continues to exist and having experienced depression, without hospital treatment, I doubt if I would have recovered as I had little or no family support at the time...
I have been to Rochford hospital - I disagree that many patients have risk of harm to themselves or others. Just give them the right drugs and they're no risk anyway. Whilst at Rochford hospital I heard a female patient choking on Haloperidol and apparently nothing was done to intervene. I saw police come one evening, to beat up a 17 year old man, and take him away. Blood pressure and heart rate taken 3 times a day there to watch for the cardiovascular changes and physical health problems that the (bad) drugs generate. I have cannabis, my secret to be physically health trouble free, and people don't always know when I'm on it as I use mouthwash. I refuse blood pressure and heartbeat and oxygen level monitoring, I check my own health. I know more than most doctors do hope to make a mentally afflicted person "better" in less than 4 minutes. I know the exact chemicals required.
To that woman who lost four years, I just send you so much love & am so sorry these people experimented on you. It’s disgusting. No human deserves psych anything, but brain surgery like this just WOW.
As a mental health care worker I thought I could watch this, but it's just too difficult:(
I'm about to watch it as I grew up in the grounds of a large and beautiful mental hospital where my Father worked. Some are locked up for very valid reasons - because they are a danger to society. My Father helped to bring in Care in the community and the idea was that people would be overseen and kept medicated. Now there have been so many cut backs that dangerous unmedicated people are out there with very little supervision.
Horrifying. I had an aunt who had electric shock therapy many times, and hubby had an aunt who had electric shock therapy, was locked away in Sea Cliff, and only saved from lobotomy because some short stories she wrote before incarceration won a prestigious award. She was never mad. She was Aspie. Fortunately she got out and lived a long and interesting life, continuing to write. My aunt was a mess for the rest of hers.
Such a bloody shame! I have depression God knows what they would they would've done to me!
Paula Smith Yeah. I got severe Post Natal and it look hard work and years to get thru. Feeling blessed we are born now!
I love these documentaries, without knowing the mistakes and ill behaviors of the past, there would be no opportunities to advance foward! I worked at our local mental facility, and we had to watch shows like this to really appreciate the standards today, as well as being able to have empathy for the patients!!!
The last 3 years I have been hospitalized 23 times because I have paranoid schizophrenia and I am so happy that the place i was, was nothing like that horrible hospital! Even though most of the hospital is over 300 years old
I'm in college to become a mental health counselor, and I want to work in a hospital setting w/kids and teenagers.I'm appauled that destroying a part of a person's brain was ever considered the 'humane' thing to do.
Speechless. Terrifying. A brilliantly produced documentary that is a must watch. Thank you for uploading.
Interesting, My great grandfather ended his life at High Royds though I only found out when researching family history as people did not speak of such things back then. He is buried in High Royds cemetery Buckle Lane Menston. Went to visit the place, High Royds is now converted into flats. The church at the cemetery was been renovated by a volunteer, he said his mother was a patient there though he never knew, the family said she had died while he was an infant though she was alive when he was 21 he never got to see her, so sad.
I have anxiety, depression and epilepsy. Some of these monstrosities still exist. If it weren't for my parents I could've ended up in one of those horrors. That's why I was so terrified of telling them anything. To this day, being committed against my will is one of my greatest fears.
It’s doesn’t take a huge leap to think people in the future will view some of our current treatments for mental illnesses this way, but still we’ve come a long way, I’m glad to be living in this time
I was going to say that I am shocked that these places were in existence so recently, but then while watching this, I suddenly remembered that we had two of these "institutions" right here in North Dakota that weren't closed until the late 1980's or early 1990's. One was called San Haven, I can't remember the other. I even remember visiting San Haven in the mid 80's with my boss, who ran a cleaners, and we were there to buy some of their used laundry equipment. Set on a beautiful land, it was huge, and I could hear endless moans and groans from the windows above. And we had to traverse a very long, dark steam tunnel to get to the building we needed to get to. The place was scary as hell, and for some reason, I guess I had blocked out the memory until just now. I have no idea what happened to all those patients when the place closed, though I do have a vague memory of some controversy about it. Anyway, thanks for putting this up. Not a happy thing to know about, but we need to know, and, in my case, need to be reminded.
Ah, here. I found a link about San Haven:
www.ghostsofnorthdakota.com/2014/01/23/inside-san-haven-sanatorium/
It's why these places are so haunted too. Even today, psychiatrists just throw drugs at you, 800mg of seroquel anyone? It's what's for dinner...WOW.
Gawd i was tried on that dose i became dissociated from reality and hallucinations horrible
I slept for 36 hours straight on 200 mg of Seroquel... Made my body so heavy I damn near pissed myself cause I couldn't get up. Wild stuff. I couldn't imagine 800mg
I have bipolar 1 and on 400 mgs and im fine. I would not sleep for weeks without it and was psychotic. Maybe you should realize some people with severe mental illness need high dosages, especially with a disorder thats like being on bath salts lol get on my level m8.
I got up to 200 but I've tried so hard to get that lowered. It makes me sleep like a baby but the side effects just aren't worth it for me.. finding the sweet spot is tough. Meds help but it's annoying when you have to take them when you wake up and before sleeping.
@@squashedshibber2684 Don’t take comments about medication personally. Medications have a very different affect on different people and different problems.
no difference today.they just drug and charge outlandish fees.
exactly
+cindy stewart really? no difference? really??
...but you have to wait, often for 18 months for NHS treatment.
Not in Scotland you don't :)
Even in England you shouldn't have to wait more that 16 weeks
ok you're the mental one
It's crazy to think that with me having schizophrenia I would have been placed in one of these places like my great great grandma was... So sad
Depends if you're dangerous to the public and yourself. If so people should be in asylums... but not as they were .
I feel sick watching this. This is just horrific. 💀😥🙅🏻
Thump Therapy. Brought a tear to my eye. To my elders who were treated in this way: Im so sorry.
I think thumping the Dr would have been the best therapy
Thank you again for the stigma being revamped! I had my hair cut a year ago and told hairdresser that I have BPD and she actually recoiled. I told her that “mental illness is not contagious. You will not catch anything from me” X x
Sadly some people are still ignorant
My sister has BPD and bipolar only just been diagnosed but I’ve learnt how to handle her illness and support her no matter what happens if only there family members felt the same a lot of suffering would have been prevented
Sad what happened to patients in these places around the world. American asylums were no better. The worst part is some patients weren't even mental, just handicap
Hi Alicia Brown, your post implied that you knew about American assyrum and patients that are not mentally ill but happened to be in there. May I know how do you know about this? And what make you believe that they are just handicapped?
Most asylums in the time period were like this. Handicaps, sure but a big one was simply lack of conformity
Look up Nellie Bly. She was perfectly sane but went undercover in an asylum to report what was really happening, some closed down because of her
Sadly many psychiatric hospitals for inpatients are still very lock and key, strict with visiting hours, little outside time, patients having meals with convicts that find themselves admitted, no protection from verbal sexual abuse.
"I don't think the community cares."
Damn.
So sad, I have a child with disabilities and it’s heartbreaking to think what could’ve been done to him :(
Oh boy that completely horrible what a poor unfortunate human beings had to suffer though such uneducated society. Therefore l hope that future generations will remember and show more compassion 🙏
We had the same sort of problems here in Portugal. But I still believe that giving a "home" a "safe haven" to some of these patients would be best for some. I think it depends on the social background: if the family is up to taking care of them, good. But what about the others? The family might not be up to the task, they might not want the task, or have the conditions, or the money for it.
I look to people like Maggie and Jean as survivors and heroes of a broken system which sadly still exists today. My experience is much like Jean and after being misdiagnosed and overmedicated I was talked into consenting to bilateral ECT, undergoing dozens of treatments essentially turning me into a zombie. It took years to recover and my personality and interests are completely different. Dr. Peter Bregin has done incredible research into the harm of ECT that explains its “success” is the flattening of affect, or loss of symptom due to loss of personality, due to brain damage.
WOW the woman who said they burnt her brain out babysat for me as a child. Such a beautiful woman.
That music during the bit with the drug bottles going down the conveyer belt though xD
Amazing video and amazing channel and amazing job friend 😀👍❤