Aston Hall Mental Hospital - pic heavy!

[TeeJF]

Great report, looks very interesting. Ive seen one of those things with the pink fronds, in ann summers!!

For real??? I was joking when I made that comment but TJ said it looked like it might be fun so perhaps that's what planted the idea.

Regarding the buildings, yeah... a good explore but incredibly heavily chavved sadly. I was appalled at the state of the hydro therapy pool. The thing is there's just nothing to stop kids getting in and whilst it's in quite a nice area I can see it would attract "gob shites" from far and wide. In one villa we were able to see literally end to end through the holes in the studded walls kicked through by the little sh*tes and there wasn't a piece of porcelain to be seen intact anywhere.

But no, apart from two pykeys on site in high viz and hard hats (yes, they completely fooled me!) it was an incredibly relaxed and easy explore. And we do like it when there's no pressure!

 

[Priority 7]

nice work Teejf thought I had popped past this thread the over day but must be losing my mind

 

[Sshhhh...]

For real??? I was joking when I made that comment but TJ said it looked like it might be fun so perhaps that's what planted the idea.

Regarding the buildings, yeah... a good explore but incredibly heavily chavved sadly. I was appalled at the state of the hydro therapy pool. The thing is there's just nothing to stop kids getting in and whilst it's in quite a nice area I can see it would attract "gob shites" from far and wide. In one villa we were able to see literally end to end through the holes in the studded walls kicked through by the little sh*tes and there wasn't a piece of porcelain to be seen intact anywhere.

But no, apart from two pykeys on site in high viz and hard hats (yes, they completely fooled me!) it was an incredibly relaxed and easy explore. And we do like it when there's no pressure!

Haha, no i was joking!!

 

[arnjeaskin]

Learning Disabilties

I support and have supported some of the last 'chronic' patients to leave. These weren't chronic ( thought that was the lingo used back in the day) but people with severe learning disabilities who needed round the clock support. These adults now live in the community in their own houses and all the better for it. Very interesting to see how it was for them back then and not as bad as some places, Very good pics x

 

[TeeJF]

That's interesting and informative, thanks for posting that reply.

You mention that these severely learning disabled live in houses in the community now... do you mean houses actually on that estate close to the hospital, or spread out throughout the county etc?

It's interesting you mention it because we were wandering past the back fence of the closest house to the hospital and we heard this appalling, distressing noise - we took it for an animal in distress - and then we realised it was a person. Then someone else told us that it's two houses knocked into one and they care there for some of the former patients. We had taken it for an OAP's home because we spotted someone elderly sun bathing in the back garden when we were up on the roof of the plant room/workshops during the explore.

 

[arnjeaskin]

Aston

Some moved to houses in Aston, we have 13 former patients from the last 50 or so to leave, ours live in a normal street in a bungalow, some do have behaviours such as making loud noises and stuff so houses were sought suitable to their behaviours. Funny though alot of violent or repetitive behaviours subsided or stopped altogether on leaving the hospital, staffing was poor so meds were used as control, this no longer happens, each has one to one support therefore relieving alot of frustrations. xx p.s Most are living in the derby area though sadly some have passed away x

 

[arnjeaskin]

oh just an extra

Bear in mind most of the last to leave were in their late 40's early 50's and most lived in Aston since children, I expect the noisiest ones were housed in more rural locations

 

[TeeJF]

A friend of ours was doing a psychology course for her qualification to practise. She was asked what she would recommend for a particular patient on a ward round with her tutor, a professor. She told him basically that it should be care on a one to one basis. She was immediately poo pooed by the prof because, "there is insufficient time, man power and money in the NHS to offer such a course of action" and that, therefore, "a sedation programme should be used instead". She went ballistic at him and stormed off the ward and her course in a huff. Later she apologised to him and he told her he admired her beliefs and that he would finance her course fees (she was trying to scrape the finances for the course herself).

On the one hand Care In The Community is seen just as a callous way of saving money. On the other if it frees up resources by the fact that it has reintegrating institutionalised patients, it's no bad thing.

Have you visited our personal website and looked at our Whittingham Asylum pictures? There's a very interesting set of video clips there of the asylum in the late seventies in the aftermath of the scandal. And it shows clearly how bad institutionalisation was at that time.

 

[arnjeaskin]

I'll take a look at that! Aston was supposed to be one of the hospitals who learned from previous bad press but it too had it's bullies etc. I still work with staff from there who have some stories to tell! To be honest I cant see how it saves money in the community, it costs roughly £3k per week for most severe people, ours have 24 hour support, its good in some ways but although most of us realise these people have a value, its the public that needs educating. Out of sight out of mind seems to be the key. Aston was one of the first to offer oepn visiting to family, usually it was lucky if you had an hour once a month. Also on a history note my ex Father in Law was a Prisoner of War at Aston Hall where he worked on nearby farms ( He was German) met a local lass and stayed after the war!

We have also fought since its closure to give access to the hydrotherapy pool, it was considered too expensive to keep open,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,yet look at it now, it was state of the art!

 

[Ratters]

Looks a good place - Shame it's so open & accessable really as it'll soon deteriorate

Nice bit of history aswell.

 

[TeeJF]

We have also fought since its closure to give access to the hydrotherapy pool, it was considered too expensive to keep open,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,yet look at it now, it was state of the art!

I heard that yes. That part of the building is in a right state with a seriously iffy roof.

As to the comment on money saving with C in the C I had it explained to me that every residential place costs so much the savings are enormous in terms of bed and feeding alone when you get patients back into their own homes or into sheltered accom. I kind of wonder though if there's an element of passing costs OFF one budget (ie the NHS budget) on to a different one (the dole basically). But there has to be a massive saving in terms of patients who can function relatively normally on a regime of self administered medication when they live in their own homes and holding down a job of work whereas in the past patients with things as (relatively) minor as post natal depression would go into an asylum and stay there for years on end after what was supposed to be a two or three day respite treatment. A crecent TV docuimentry was very revealing on exactly that topic - one woman went into the asylum near Leeds for two days and didn't come out for several years. She was given ECT and if my memory serves me correctly, a lieucotomy, for post natal depression!

Anyhow, enjoy the video clips on our Whitty page and there are also several other asylums on there too, though our Barrow Gurney page is not finished yet. BG was very similar to Aston hall in a lot of ways.

 

[TeeJF]

Looks a good place - Shame it's so open & accessable really as it'll soon deteriorate

Nice bit of history aswell.

Thanks for your kind comments. It would be hard now for Aston Hall to deteriorate much more frankly short of burning down and the chavs have already had one go at doing that... it's disgusting the mentality of some people today.

 

[Foxylady]

- one woman went into the asylum near Leeds for two days and didn't come out for several years. She was given ECT and if my memory serves me correctly, a lieucotomy, for post natal depression!

Oh!!! That's horrendous. Poor, poor woman. I had the same condition big time for about two years after giving birth but never told anyone. It's a terrible thing to have but does right itself in the end. I can't imagine how awful it must have been for her to have been taken away from her child and subjected to such draconian treatment. My heart goes out to her.

 

[TeeJF]

Yeah, it was an horrendous documentary.