Meet the Local Associations
5: Wirral Association by J. G.
D. Walker
of Wirral
(Member
the awe which enfolds the word 'mental' and the stigma which still attaches to mental illness". These the ideals were expressed in a letter sent in December 1950 to the National Association by Mr. E. M. Harborow, a Mental the Cheshire Welfare Officer of County Council, suggesting the formation of a voluntary body in Wirral. The distance still to be travelled before the fulfilment of these ideals tends to obscure the achievements of At little more than a dozen years. a it was indeed the beginning challenging?not to say formidable? task. It is perhaps apt that Wirral, as one of its amenity-societies proclaims: "eighteen miles long and six to seven wide, is a miniature of England as a whole"?and that here such pioneering moves should have been made; not the earliest but well in the van. Naturally enough, it was at the "business end" of the peninsula, in Birkenhead, that the inaugural meeting of the Wirral Association for Mental Health was held, under the Presidency of Freda, Viscountess Leverhulme, with Dr. Alfred Torrie as the speaker. The Mayor of Birkenhead, Alderman Frank Garstang, M.A., J.P., was elected the Associafirst tion's Chairman, and Mrs. E. B. James, a well-known marriage guidance counsellor and wife of the consultant psychiatrist for the area, became the Honorary Secretary. Even before the end of 1951 two talks had been given to interested audiences of local organisations. Local authorities were quick to appreciate the value of a movement of this of them number nature and a responded to the suggestion that co-opted nominees should join the
REMOVE
Committee.
.Association)
early significant reacti"' public body was the ready adop by the Upton Mental Hospi^
Another
by
a
tion
tbl Committee of carried at the Association first annual meeting that the Manag? ment Committee be asked to di?\ the word "mental" from the title. Subsequently the name Dev Hospital was substituted. In 1952/53 the Association ^ responsible for a pilot enquiry, baS& Management
proposal
hospita^
on
Wallasey, regarding educational'
^ subnormal school-leavers. It described by the N.A.M.H., at behest it was instituted, as a "real' valuable piece of local research". / the same year the Wirral Associate co-operated with the Department c Extra-Mural Studies to arrange first of some highly successful cours? in mental health at the University c
wh^:
Liverpool. The problems
of contact with, aPl assimilation into, the world outsit are ones which have interested Association from an early stage. Tl1' Honorary Secretary, Mrs. E. B. Jarne! stated at the fourth annual meeting "In our report last year it suggested that a League of Friefl^ might be set up to serve the Dev' within the last fe! Hospital months such a league has been forme" This link of service between the munity and those unfortunate enoUl to be patients in the hospital may y much to dispel the sense of isolatj0, which the thought of mental hospft3, treatment so easily conjures up in mind." A few months later the Associate1; initiated social activities for patientand ex-patients of the Neurosis tin), recently established at St. Catherine Hospital, Birkenhead. Towards th? f end of 1957 another venture
^
.
.
.
coflj
take shape. If, St. Catherine's
today, the Hospital
began
visitor
Anne*'
40
J
r
chooses a Tuesday or Thursday afternoon he may encounter certain activities Prepared.
for which he is totally
un-
therapeutic
value
they
scheme, by sending
set upon the
some
longer-term patients
to join in. About 40 benefit at the present time.
patients It
be said that many of these being "brought into life" by the engagement of their will and purpose, for is not the key to the benefit it brings to them "participation"? Where, in the final cure of a patient, there is the even more vital aspect of participation, the term "bringing into life" is even more apt. Readers of Mental Health will know how some who have made little progress in years, given the opportunity of doing work they believe to be of value, may be discharged in weeks. At Deva, Dr. Seymour-Shove, who had assisted in pioneering such work at Bristol, has instituted workshops
might
patients
are
one ?f the smaller rooms, Sr?up of people seemingly preparatory stages of learning
r?'
th
irwh
'S a
a "
Vet
so ^they
the^ y
TheY
^ave
are
not
word-perfect
have their scripts?but mac*e 8??d progress. Are
Public-spirited amateurs preparing
entertainment
for the patients? others are engaged in folkncnig, under the guidance of an experienced instructress. is the savour of newly-baked c ,ere ' anc* there fl?at across the room not from a vigorous mixed voice
^ ^
sewhere,
-piously
c^s
^Ventually
^?
the visitor realises that
participants
?r
close
are
patients.
five years a devoted oup 0f members of the Wirral s.0ciation have organised these v activhies. Recently the hosa Sta^ have shown their confidence in the Association and the high
Pitr'i?US
on
within the hospital. These, however, at best only cater for relatively few resident patients. Tremendous need has remained' for facilities for patients in Wirral as a whole to work in factories outside hospital grounds.
can
Due to the initiative of the Wirral Association this is now within sight of realisation. In March 1962, with Lord Cohen in the chair, representatives of Local
Authorities,
Hospital
Management
Committees and many other organisations met, through the sponsorship of the Wirral Association, to discuss the Industrial formation of a Wirral Therapy Council. This was duly set up and has become an independent organisation though still closely associated with the Wirral Association. The Lord Lieutenant of the County, Viscount Leverhulme, Lord Cohen of Birkenhead and the Bishop of Chester are honorary members. One very useful function a local association can perform is to bring together various mental health interests and to help to set up organisations for a particular purpose as the Wirral Association has done in the case of the Wirral Industrial Therapy Council. Throughout the existence of the Association a high tradition of distinction in the speakers who address its
has been maintained. The have included Lord Cohen of head, now the President of
meetings
Birk^
Association, Lady Norman, J.P., L?( Feversham, D.S.O., D.L., J.P., a"' Lord Longford, P.C., M.A., wfr1' Mrs. E. M. Braddock, M.P., h3 addressed the Association on than one occasion. Many othep1 locally or more widely eminent their field, have covered top,c ranging from child guidance to ^ work of a prison governor and fr?r the mental health services to technic aspects of psychopathology. Thus as the work in this part 0 Cheshire penetrates more deeply vV
hope
to see an
ever-growing contri^
tion to the relief of human sufferi^ Those who live in this part of Englafl' and are interested in our work, ^ have not yet considered joining ^ Wirral Association, might care to wr'1 to the Hon. Secretary, Mrs. WHardie, 36, Birch Road, Oxttf Birkenhead, Cheshire. Readers be interested to know that Mrs. Hard'1 illustrated this feature.
5: Wirral Association by J. G.
D. Walker
of Wirral
(Member
the awe which enfolds the word 'mental' and the stigma which still attaches to mental illness". These the ideals were expressed in a letter sent in December 1950 to the National Association by Mr. E. M. Harborow, a Mental the Cheshire Welfare Officer of County Council, suggesting the formation of a voluntary body in Wirral. The distance still to be travelled before the fulfilment of these ideals tends to obscure the achievements of At little more than a dozen years. a it was indeed the beginning challenging?not to say formidable? task. It is perhaps apt that Wirral, as one of its amenity-societies proclaims: "eighteen miles long and six to seven wide, is a miniature of England as a whole"?and that here such pioneering moves should have been made; not the earliest but well in the van. Naturally enough, it was at the "business end" of the peninsula, in Birkenhead, that the inaugural meeting of the Wirral Association for Mental Health was held, under the Presidency of Freda, Viscountess Leverhulme, with Dr. Alfred Torrie as the speaker. The Mayor of Birkenhead, Alderman Frank Garstang, M.A., J.P., was elected the Associafirst tion's Chairman, and Mrs. E. B. James, a well-known marriage guidance counsellor and wife of the consultant psychiatrist for the area, became the Honorary Secretary. Even before the end of 1951 two talks had been given to interested audiences of local organisations. Local authorities were quick to appreciate the value of a movement of this of them number nature and a responded to the suggestion that co-opted nominees should join the
REMOVE
Committee.
.Association)
early significant reacti"' public body was the ready adop by the Upton Mental Hospi^
Another
by
a
tion
tbl Committee of carried at the Association first annual meeting that the Manag? ment Committee be asked to di?\ the word "mental" from the title. Subsequently the name Dev Hospital was substituted. In 1952/53 the Association ^ responsible for a pilot enquiry, baS& Management
proposal
hospita^
on
Wallasey, regarding educational'
^ subnormal school-leavers. It described by the N.A.M.H., at behest it was instituted, as a "real' valuable piece of local research". / the same year the Wirral Associate co-operated with the Department c Extra-Mural Studies to arrange first of some highly successful cours? in mental health at the University c
wh^:
Liverpool. The problems
of contact with, aPl assimilation into, the world outsit are ones which have interested Association from an early stage. Tl1' Honorary Secretary, Mrs. E. B. Jarne! stated at the fourth annual meeting "In our report last year it suggested that a League of Friefl^ might be set up to serve the Dev' within the last fe! Hospital months such a league has been forme" This link of service between the munity and those unfortunate enoUl to be patients in the hospital may y much to dispel the sense of isolatj0, which the thought of mental hospft3, treatment so easily conjures up in mind." A few months later the Associate1; initiated social activities for patientand ex-patients of the Neurosis tin), recently established at St. Catherine Hospital, Birkenhead. Towards th? f end of 1957 another venture
^
.
.
.
coflj
take shape. If, St. Catherine's
today, the Hospital
began
visitor
Anne*'
40
J
r
chooses a Tuesday or Thursday afternoon he may encounter certain activities Prepared.
for which he is totally
un-
therapeutic
value
they
scheme, by sending
set upon the
some
longer-term patients
to join in. About 40 benefit at the present time.
patients It
be said that many of these being "brought into life" by the engagement of their will and purpose, for is not the key to the benefit it brings to them "participation"? Where, in the final cure of a patient, there is the even more vital aspect of participation, the term "bringing into life" is even more apt. Readers of Mental Health will know how some who have made little progress in years, given the opportunity of doing work they believe to be of value, may be discharged in weeks. At Deva, Dr. Seymour-Shove, who had assisted in pioneering such work at Bristol, has instituted workshops
might
patients
are
one ?f the smaller rooms, Sr?up of people seemingly preparatory stages of learning
r?'
th
irwh
'S a
a "
Vet
so ^they
the^ y
TheY
^ave
are
not
word-perfect
have their scripts?but mac*e 8??d progress. Are
Public-spirited amateurs preparing
entertainment
for the patients? others are engaged in folkncnig, under the guidance of an experienced instructress. is the savour of newly-baked c ,ere ' anc* there fl?at across the room not from a vigorous mixed voice
^ ^
sewhere,
-piously
c^s
^Ventually
^?
the visitor realises that
participants
?r
close
are
patients.
five years a devoted oup 0f members of the Wirral s.0ciation have organised these v activhies. Recently the hosa Sta^ have shown their confidence in the Association and the high
Pitr'i?US
on
within the hospital. These, however, at best only cater for relatively few resident patients. Tremendous need has remained' for facilities for patients in Wirral as a whole to work in factories outside hospital grounds.
can
Due to the initiative of the Wirral Association this is now within sight of realisation. In March 1962, with Lord Cohen in the chair, representatives of Local
Authorities,
Hospital
Management
Committees and many other organisations met, through the sponsorship of the Wirral Association, to discuss the Industrial formation of a Wirral Therapy Council. This was duly set up and has become an independent organisation though still closely associated with the Wirral Association. The Lord Lieutenant of the County, Viscount Leverhulme, Lord Cohen of Birkenhead and the Bishop of Chester are honorary members. One very useful function a local association can perform is to bring together various mental health interests and to help to set up organisations for a particular purpose as the Wirral Association has done in the case of the Wirral Industrial Therapy Council. Throughout the existence of the Association a high tradition of distinction in the speakers who address its
has been maintained. The have included Lord Cohen of head, now the President of
meetings
Birk^
Association, Lady Norman, J.P., L?( Feversham, D.S.O., D.L., J.P., a"' Lord Longford, P.C., M.A., wfr1' Mrs. E. M. Braddock, M.P., h3 addressed the Association on than one occasion. Many othep1 locally or more widely eminent their field, have covered top,c ranging from child guidance to ^ work of a prison governor and fr?r the mental health services to technic aspects of psychopathology. Thus as the work in this part 0 Cheshire penetrates more deeply vV
hope
to see an
ever-growing contri^
tion to the relief of human sufferi^ Those who live in this part of Englafl' and are interested in our work, ^ have not yet considered joining ^ Wirral Association, might care to wr'1 to the Hon. Secretary, Mrs. WHardie, 36, Birch Road, Oxttf Birkenhead, Cheshire. Readers be interested to know that Mrs. Hard'1 illustrated this feature.
