Re: Meanwood park hospital . I myself worked there from 1987 to the year it closed. If anyone is interested
Posted: Sun 09 Sep, 2018 12:35 am
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Nurse Linda wrote:I was a student nurse at Meanwood Park in the early 70s and I am saddened at the general tone of criticism on in this thread. The stories or impressions given here produce an entirely erroneous view of the hospital. It was not filled with unkind or thoughtless staff treating the patients badly. Not at all! I guess there would be some cases of ill treatment since it seems unrealistic to think otherwise but I never saw any case of it anywhere in the time I worked there. It was not ideal in many ways. I'm not saying it was. It had all the problems of a large institution with little homeliness and routines that were not always the best for every patient. But this was not intentional and was simply the downside of the hospital system which was our best idea for the time. Soon after I worked there the first scheme for group homes was launched and I went on to work in one of the first rehabilitation hostels in the country. In Headingley. Now, 40 years later, I sometimes work in group homes with learning disabled and so have seen the results of that idea come to fruition. The group home system is much better on the whole than the old institution system but this progress is just part of evolution of the service. In 50 years time people could be writing the same kind of criticisms of modern care for learning disabled. I would ask anyone with a view on the conditions at MPH to practise caution and diplomacy before spreading it about as the absolute truth. If you weren't there you don't know what it was like! Nor why it was like it was.Linda