Reviews : Discharged from Mental Hospitals Philip Bean & Patricia Mounser MIND Macmillan, 1993; £10.99 pbk
| Date | 01 March 1993 |
| Author | Owen Wells |
| Published date | 01 March 1993 |
| DOI | 10.1177/026455059304000113 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
36
This
book
of
essays
has
been
thoughtfully
and
carefully
prepared
and
I
do
believe
that
it
will
make
some
contribution
to
the
debates
of
the
next
few
years.
Sadly
however,
some
oppor-
tunities
have
been
misused,
Overburden-
ed
as
it
is,
with
angst
ridden
senior
managers
seeking
to
exorcise
their
demons,
too
many
practitioners
will
read
it
and
find
that
it
impinges
on
them
barely
at
all.
Contributions
from
practitioners
would
have
been
welcome,
and
their
absence
is
itself
an
example
of
the
problem
that
Fellowes
and
Shaw
are
trying
to
identify.
I
also
missed
some
of
the
old
stalwarts.
No
Harding,
no
Lacey,
no
Gordon
Read.
I
hope
this
doesn’t
mean
that
the
old
troupers
are
beginning
to
forget
their
lines.
Some
of
them
had
quite
good
ones.
One
final
word.
If
you
are
going
to
read
this
book
make
sure
that
you
do
it
in
work
time.
I
read
it
on
a
rainy
Saturday
afternoon.
It
was
a
mistake.
David
Millard
SPO,
Birmingham
Discharged
from
Mental
Hospitals
Philip
Bean
&
Patricia
Mounser
MIND
Macmillan,
1993; £10.99
pbk
’Prisons
have
now
become
the
key
in-
stitutions
for
the
containnent
of
the
mentally
disordered’.
That
really
says
it
all.
This
book,
in
a
dry
and
sometimes
rather
boring
fashion,
catalogues
the
reality
of
the
deC41f’cera-
tion
of
the
mentally
ill.
We
all
know
that
de-institutionalisation
and
’com-
munity
care’
are
the
order
of
the
day.
Few
of
us
may
realise
the
change
there
has
been
from
143,000
patients
in
mental
hospitals
in
1953
to
43,000
in
1991.
And
where
have
the
other
100,000
gone?
Some
to
sleep
on the
streets,
some
to
seedy
flats
or
hotels,
some
to
hostels
for
the
homeless,
and
many
to
prison.
A
lucky
few
will
have
gone
to
de-
cent,
community
facilities
but,
as
this
book
points
out
’It
is
often
forgotten
that
at
their
best
mental
hospitals
pro-
vided
nutritious
but
institutional
food,
good
personal
care...
excellent
profes-
.
sional
health
care ...
providing
the
function
of
’sanctuary’
in
an
Otherwise
hostile
world ...
kept
patients
oc-
cupied
and
provided
leisure
activities
making
sure
they
were
not
isolat~d~.
This
is
not
a
polemical
book,
but
it
comes
to
the
conclusion
that
the
pro-
cess
of
dismantling
mental
hospitals
has
proceeded
at such
a
pace
that
pro-
per
consideration
of
what
is
needed
for
the
mentally
ill
has
not
kept
up
with
the
change.
It
is
melancholy
(for
those
that
believe
there
is
a
valuable
role
for
places
of
asylum)
to
realise
that
we
have
gone
so
far
along
the road
to
decarceration
that
the
process
cannot
be
reversed.
I
found
this
a
grim
book,
full
of
facts
that
lead
to
the
unpleasant
con-
clusion
that
the
mentally
ill
have
not
been
well
served
by
recent
changes.
It
deserves
to
be
read.
Owen
Wells
Probation
Officer,
Lancashire
Materials
on
the
Criminal
Justice
Act
1991
Andrew
Ashworth
and
others
(Eds)
Waterside
Press,
1992; pp266;
£12 pbk
Complementing
the
same
publisher’s
other
volumes
on
the
Criminal justice
Act,
this
book
attempts
to
collate
a
range
of
materials
for
those
struggling
to
make
sense
of
the
new
concepts
and
new
law.
If
the
source
of
the
contribu-
tions
seems
a
little
narrow
at
times,
mainly
restricted
to
pieces
by
the
editors,
articles
from
Justice
of
the
Peace,
The
Magistrate
and
Home
Of-
fice
statements,
there
is
nevertheless
much
of
interest
and
importance,
including
chapters
on
the
philosophy
of
the
Act,
seriousness,
unit
fines,
pre-
sentence
reports,
s29,
s9 5 ,
early
release
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