ABSTRACT
Constant recurring theme in all debates about the National Health Service (NHS) has been the definition, location and potential of community-based health care. Community-based nursing staff included the long-established provision of health visiting, district nursing and domiciliary midwifery. Local government was the major provider of mental health services before the NHS was established. For people with mental health problems, NHS would involve a trend away from provision based exclusively on the mental hospital, with the development of a range of services including outpatient, and day-patient care, community nursing, social work support, day centres, hostels, and group homes. In 1955, the Royal Commission on the Law relating to Mental Illness and Mental Deficiency was established; they reported two years later. A growing commitment to various forms of institutional care nonetheless recognised long-standing traditions of community health care, with recognisable community care policies also being developed in the nineteenth century.
