A History of Mental Health Nursing

A history of psychiatric nursing which contrasts the distress of those who have experienced mental illness with the pioneering efforts of psychiatrists and psychiatric nurses. It observes the speed with which new treatments are absorbed into clinical practice, and then become outdated.

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An understanding of the historical roots of the present is the springboard for a more enlightened tomorrow. This is the story of the rapid development of psychiatric nursing. The author's research, observations and interviews have resulted in a revealing tapestry of life, contrasting the distress of the many people who experience mental health problems with the pioneering efforts of those who try to provide relief. Psychiatric nursing is traced from the role of "Keeper" to Mental Health Nurse". The language of psychiatry includes lunacy, workhouses, asylums, moral defection, attendants and mental nursing, through to the current emphasis on community mental health care. The author observes the speed with which new ideas have been absorbed into clinical practice - and the equal speed with which they became and do become outdated and discredited. The implication is that society has still a long way to go in both the understanding and the response to the problems of life that have been observed and documented since man began to contemplate and write.