Troubled Asylum For Sale (NOW SOLD)

This copy has now been sold.

 

We have too many copies!

For sale, a second edition copy of “Troubled Asylum” by author Ralph Gowlland. This second edition, soft cover edition was published in 1996.

This version contains an extra forward by the then Minister for Community and Health Services, Peter McKay MLC.

This is a very clean copy with some writing on the inside cover (see picture below).

This is a hard to find book which covers the troubled history of the hospital from 1827.

All profits go toward the maintenance and continued research of this website.

$200.00 plus postage

Please contact me through my email address: mark@willowcourttasmania.org

Payment details PAYPAL 

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Bed styles at Willow Court

From the early 1830’s patients and beds go hand in hand at the hospital over the 174 years of operation and the styles have changed over that time.  In the 1830s, due to a critical shortage of beds, the District Surgeon Dr. Officer ordered iron beds from NSW (50 arrived) along with permission to make more iron beds on site. This type of bed was used at Willow Court until the 1960s ref: (‘Troubled Asylum’, Gowlland,1981, p13-14). 

This bed could be folded in half for easy storage and transportation. The picture below shows what was commonly used as a mattress right up to the 1960’s. 

‘There was no mattresses or rubber beds; they were all straw, every bed was straw and you had to go out and fill these jolly things. When they go flattened a bit, you know; when they started to get comfortable … you had to go and fill them up again’.

(ref: June Purkiss, ‘Living In Living Out’ exhibition).  

The next style is a bit of a mystery as to the time it was used in the hospital. This clever style could also convert into a seat. It is thought it could’ve been used in the 1900th century. It is a folding, tubular metal bed (chair) with side rails with an adjustable head height. Fabric strips tie the metal base to headboard. 

Not dissimilar to the Port Arthur patterned bed but built with modern white square tubular steel and a wired spring base. This late 20th century bed was used throughout the hospital. Similar beds are seen in a 1970’s photo of a dormitory at the Royal Derwent Hospital, taken for display in the Tasmanian Agent General’s Office, London.

The bed base is missing from this round aluminium tubing headboard with 3 vertical struts and footboard.  Similar beds are seen in a 1970s photo of a crowded dormitory in the Royal Derwent Hospital, taken for display in the Tasmanian Agent General’s Office, London. In the photo, round tubing framed beds like this alternate with square tubing framed beds (above photo). (Ref: Archives Office of Tasmania AA193-1-291)

A bed wouldn’t be complete without a bedside table like this one. This cream metal bedside cabinet with a single drawer and door is marked with ‘under pants’ written on masking tape on the drawer and ‘track pants’ on the door. The Acne beds name plate is on the rear. 

This late 20th Century wooden and steel framed bed has two drawers under the bed and had a mottled green vinyl on the headboard and footboard. There is one of these in C ward but it is in poor condition.

This ‘Hendicare’ adjustable brown metal framed bed has a metal grid base and is on casters. It has flexible pull out mesh on one side of the frame and melinex footboard slots into the base. Most likely dating from the late 20th century.

Another modern bed, this adjustable steel bed, on casters has a pull out flexible mesh sides and wood grained plastic laminate headboard. Manufactured in Australia by Siltex Engineering Pty. Ltd. Patent No. 544268, it was supplied by Joyce Hospital Equipment, c.1970-1980s.

Lastly this Child’s metal cot with adjustable height base. Similar cots are seen in a 1970s photo of a children’s dormitory in the Royal Derwent Hospital, taken for display in the Tasmanian Agent General’s Office, London.

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Return to the Community

This book isn’t that rare, but the stamp, “WILLOW COURT PARENTS & FRIENDS ASSOCIATION” on the front cover makes it rare.

RETURN TO THE COMMUNITY, THE PROCESS OF CLOSING AN INSTITUTION was a published book from a case study on how to close an institution and return those who were residents to their community.

Published in 1987 in Canada, the book documents the closing of Tranquille, which institutionalised people with intellectual disability.

The follow text explains the complex context that all institutions started the closure process and Willow Court was no exception as evident by the presence of this book and another copy that was used by the Management.

The book is available by clicking on the image below. 

Closing an institution for people with disabilities must be seen in the context of several interrelated social trends.

• During the 1970s and 1980s the disability field in Canada has literally seen an explosion in emphasis on human rights. People with disabilities are increasingly seen as a significant minority group who have been marginalized in almost every area of life. The International Year of Disabled Persons and the Canadian Charter of Rights proclaimed in 1982 raised awareness about the discrimination faced by people with handicaps. Rights activists have also advocated for more institutional closures and community living alternatives (Day, 1985; Savage, 1985).

• Since Goffman’s (1961) classic work on the total institution twenty-five years ago, numerous critiques of institutions and ‘back wards’ have been vividly presented (Blatt, 1970; Rivera, 1973; Rothman, 1981; Wolfensberger, 1975.) This body of work has raised awareness about the limits of the asylum, including the fact that institutions labour under too many conflicting models of service. This knowledge is widely used by citizens demanding community options to institutionalization.

• Normalization and community living increasingly became accepted as the guiding ideology for services for people with handicaps. These principles have emphasized the value of people with disabilities having ordinary life experiences (Wolfensberger,1973). Proponents of normalization have been very critical of institutions and have strongly supported community integration and participation (Perske, 1980; Ri.chler, 1981).

• In the last decade, research and planning efforts associated with deinstitutionalization in the United States and Canada have produced a wide range of reports and understandings. By 1983, there was a growing sense that we knew how to effectively implement deinstitutionalization by redesigning community service systems (Provencal, 1980; McWhorter and Kappel, 1983).

• The era of fiscal restraint that swept over British Columbia and other parts of Canada in the early 1980s seemed to be a further impetus to accelerate the deinstitutionalization process. Capital and operating expenditures for total institutions were enormous and, increasingly, governments, and advocates saw the economic benefits of community living (Canadian Council on Social Development, 1985; Copeland, 1982).

These trends have encouraged widespread interest in closing institutions
and in related policy initiatives.

 

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