Hacker Cinema
Mental: A History of the Madhouse
2010 · Film · documentary · 59 min
Directed by Chris Boulding
Documentary which tells the fascinating and poignant story of the closure of Britain's mental asylums. In the post-war period, 150,000 people were hidden away in 120 of these vast Victorian institutions all across the country. Today, most mental patients, or service users as they are now called, live out in the community and the asylums have all but disappeared. Through powerful testimonies from patients, nurses and doctors, the film explores this seismic revolution and what it tells us about society's changing attitudes to mental illness over the last sixty years.
1 positivefrom 1 commenter
Where to watch
No streaming data for this title.
1 comment on Hacker News
> (Damn you, deinstitutionalization.)
Read up on what actually happened in those places. Read up on 999 Queen St. (for a Canadian example) or watch "Mental: A History of the Madhouse" (a BBC Documentary for a British example).
I would agree with you if those places didn't end up being worse than prisons... ("No one will believe the crazy girl when she says that I raped her!", etc)
[edit] In general, Canada seems to have better support for mental health issues than the US does.