ABSTRACT
The annual conference of Mind, titled The Future of the Mental Hospitals, showed little consensus on mental health policy. Most chairmen, medical directors and administrators of the new bodies were unfamiliar with the needs of psychiatric patients. The committee began by consulting specialists on suicide, including Peter Sainsbury at the Medical Research Council (MRC) psychiatric research unit at Graylingwell Hospital, and data were sought on suicides elsewhere. Normalising principles helped to transform the social atmosphere of the mental hospital. Many nurses enjoyed being in a place free from the stultifying norms of society, where patients and staff alike could express themselves. By nature and nurture, psychiatric nursing was becoming less regimental and more psychosocially orientated, but patient's experiences are equivocal on such change. Although the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) was characterised as a general nurse's union, it had some presence in mental hospitals.
