Psychiatric Asylums were the main form of mental healthcare in the UK for over a century. These large buildings located on the urban fringe were set up as places of refuge, only to become urban legends of maltreatment and abuse, reviled by many. From the 1960s there was a policy of mass asylum closure, seeing the majority of these institutions close their doors to patients for the last time, as care was relocated elsewhere. But what happened to these asylum spaces? Dr. Josh Green will discuss the downfall of the asylum, the consequences for patients, and the many ways in which psychiatric asylums continue to be a part of everyday life.
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