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Macabre Exhibition Of Old Mental Hospital Apparatus At Severall Hospitals - Colchester

1972 , Colchester (Essex)

Cat no. 147137

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Anglia TV news item; John Swinfield is shown various instruments and apparatus once used in the treatment of mental health patients.

Various instruments used to restrain mental health patients are displayed on the wall at the exhibition. Close up of some of the instruments, including handcuffs. Reporter John Swinfield interviews a man who works as a nurse at the hospital about the instruments they used years ago. His colleague wears some of the devices from the exhibition, such as a ‘strong shirt’ and strong leather mitts, to demonstrate how they were used. He explains how these instruments were last used in the 1940’s but since then they have made rapid progress in improving the methods of treatment for mental health patients. He shows Swinfield a waistcoat which has screws on to prevent the patient from being able to take it off. When Swinfield comments that the jacket looks rather ghoulish, the nurse replies that they are not ghoulish but practical. Close up of a metal instrument used to open a patient’s jaws, while the nurse demonstrates how it was used. He then talks about and holds up a feeding cup, which he comments is a most inhumane apparatus. He shows the cutlery, drinking mugs and plates that patients used. He holds up the boots that patients were locked into so they couldn’t take them off or use them as weapons. They discuss how the nurses had to restrain the patients in this way for their own safety. His colleague is strapped into the restraining chair to demonstrate how it was used.

Keywords

Hospitals; Mental Health.

Manifestations

Macabre Exhibition Of Old Mental Hospital Apparatus At Severall Hospitals - Colchester

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