Silent Minority part 4

Silent Minority, aired on british television June 1981. The documentary spotlights alledgedly appalling conditions at Borocourt Hospital, Reading, Berks and St Lawrences Hospital Caterham, Surrey.

St Lawrences Hospital

In 1974, the hospital came to public attention with the publication of the book Tongue Tied by Joseph ('Joey') John Deacon who had been a patient at the hospital since the age of eight in 1928. This was followed by the TV documentary Silent Minority in which the hospital featured in an unfavourable light.

The documentary brought out strong feelings at the time given the content which in one scene shows a child tied to a pole in a ward.

www.highroydshospital.co.uk

Category:

Education

Tags:

• St Lawrence hospital
• silent minority
• Caterham Mental Hospital
• high royds

[jb55101]

if they are trying to find a way out and getting out then there not as retarded as some people thing,

[cooldaddy1234567]

Usually when you see this kind of human abuse is at wartime. This is.... what can be said?

[Lucailey]

I have two dogs that I treat with more humanity than the people in this hospital. That is sick. Locking people outside, tieing them to poles, shuting them away in their locked rooms... These scenes are like a train wreck. I don't want to look but... I can't look away. This makes me want to cry. How can we as humans treat other humans like this when it isn't even right to give animals this treatment!

[Ruthyphro]

This is harrowing and eye-opening. How far we have come! I feel awful for the residents and staff in those horrific instututions and thought that the young man speaking in part 4 was spot on.

[DeeDee1957]

There was alot of love and happiness at St Lawrences, but it had been a vast dumping ground . So many should never have been there. Even with my resourcefulness I wondered daily how to give the residents a better quality of life. Hello the residents and staff still alive. I never forget you, and wish I stayed longer. Delia Morris RNLD

[DeeDee1957]

In a situation where there was precious little reward trying to maintain a high standard of nursing in run down four storey building forgotten by the NHS. We could not take the patients out let alone do anything else.

[DeeDee1957]

I worked at St Lawrences .I trained as a Mental Handicap Nursei n New Zealandd , The ward I worked in St Lawrences had 26 patients we had 3 staff sometimes two across all shifts looking after them. In New Zealand for that number we would have had 6. All our residents were woman and in wheel chairs. It was a grim place, but I can never forget the loving compassion the English nurses showed to their charges. I

[smileykisses420]

in nurseing homes it is 2 aids and a nurse with 23 residents that isnt fair either some of the residents are just as in need of care as these people are

[ozisalegend]

Ok hang on...intellectual disability nurses are amazing people they truely are but this gut has it down to a t. Its impossible for 3 nurses to give 20-something patients the care they need and deserve. Its not a case of incompetant staff but understaffing.

[RabbitfulGoon]

So depressing. If the hospital had enough properly trained staff, it probably wouldn't have been nearly this bad.