Difference between revisions of "Portal:Featured Article Of The Week"

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|Title= Whitby Psychiatric Hospital
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|Title= Kew Lunatic Asylum
|Image= Whitadmin.jpg
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|Image= kew1885.png
 
|Width= 150px
 
|Width= 150px
|Body= In 1911, the architect, James Govan, working with a team of advisory psychiatrists, physicians and government officials, presented his design for the Whitby Hospital. Govan's design called for a series of 16 cottages, each housing approximately 70 patients, situated in a village-like setting amongst winding treed avenues. While the exterior design of the cottages was strongly influenced by German architecture, any other similarity stopped there. Canadian physicians worked closely with their architect to make sure the Whitby Hospital would offer a calmer and more humane atmosphere for patients than other institutions they had seen in their travels. The buildings must be situated in such a way, said the physicians, that all wards in all cottages receive some form of direct sunlight, even during the shortest days. An overhead view of the site plan indicates that Govan did exactly that. The main group of cottages faced south west, slightly back from the shore of Lake Ontario.
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|Body= The Kew Asylum was first opened in 1871 as a ward of Yarra Bend. For a short period Kew was also known as the "Metropolitan Asylum". Many of Kew's early patients were transferred from Yarra Bend and the Collingwood Asylum. In October 1872 Kew was proclaimed a separate institution from Yarra Bend.
  
In the initial building stages, prisoners from nearby Central Prison supplied much of the labor. During later stages of construction, paid laborers and mechanics worked for wages ranging from $0.55 to $1.00 per hour. To ease the transfer of building materials from the local railway station a mile to the north east, workers built a narrow gauge trunk-line across several fields of pasture into the construction site.  [[Whitby Psychiatric Hospital|Click here for more...]]
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After World War II there was a period of significant change in the treatment and prognosis for people with a mental illness. Drugs such as Lithium carbonate (discovered in 1948 by Australian psychiatrist Dr John Cade) and chlorpromazine (discovered in 1950's) lead to improvements in treatment. Thus many people with a mental illness could in many cases be treated in hospital for a shorter period and return to the community. The Mental Health Act of 1959 designated hospitals providing short-term diagnosis and accommodation as "psychiatric hospitals". Therefore any institution could have a section designated as a mental hospital for long-term or indefinite hospitalisation and a section designated as a psychiatric hospital for short term diagnosis and treatment of acute psychiatric illness.
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In 1962 the decision was made to no longer house acute or short-term patients at Kew and therefore it was formally proclaimed a Mental Hospital under the Mental Health Act of 1959. Up until this time, Kew Mental Hospital was still colloquially known as 'Kew Asylum'.  [[Kew Lunatic Asylum|Click here for more...]]
 
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Revision as of 04:24, 9 August 2020

Featured Article Of The Week

Kew Lunatic Asylum


kew1885.png

The Kew Asylum was first opened in 1871 as a ward of Yarra Bend. For a short period Kew was also known as the "Metropolitan Asylum". Many of Kew's early patients were transferred from Yarra Bend and the Collingwood Asylum. In October 1872 Kew was proclaimed a separate institution from Yarra Bend.

After World War II there was a period of significant change in the treatment and prognosis for people with a mental illness. Drugs such as Lithium carbonate (discovered in 1948 by Australian psychiatrist Dr John Cade) and chlorpromazine (discovered in 1950's) lead to improvements in treatment. Thus many people with a mental illness could in many cases be treated in hospital for a shorter period and return to the community. The Mental Health Act of 1959 designated hospitals providing short-term diagnosis and accommodation as "psychiatric hospitals". Therefore any institution could have a section designated as a mental hospital for long-term or indefinite hospitalisation and a section designated as a psychiatric hospital for short term diagnosis and treatment of acute psychiatric illness.

In 1962 the decision was made to no longer house acute or short-term patients at Kew and therefore it was formally proclaimed a Mental Hospital under the Mental Health Act of 1959. Up until this time, Kew Mental Hospital was still colloquially known as 'Kew Asylum'. Click here for more...