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Social History of Medicine Advance Access published online on April 5, 2007
Social History of Medicine, doi:10.1093/shm/hkl079
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© The Author 2007. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society for the Social History of Medicine. All rights reserved

Care in the Community of the Mentally Disordered: The Case of the Guardianship Society, 1900–1939

Louise Westwood*

* Research Reader, Department of History, University of Sussex, Falmer, Brighton BN1 9SH, UK. E-mail: L.Westwood{at}Sussex.ac.uk


  Abstract

Summary The independent, charitable Guardianship Society began providing foster-care for children with mental and physical disabilities in turn-of-the-century Brighton. This approach was the antithesis of the well-documented shift towards care in a controlled and secure environment. After 1913, the Society worked with adults and pioneered boarding-out schemes and work placements for training while allowing their ‘charges’ to enjoy considerable freedom in the community. This approach followed a much older tradition of community care within the family, which had been evident from the seventeenth century, but the Society's approach was organised in homes in which the guardians were not family relations. The ideals of the Society were in direct opposition to the ‘ascertainment’ (the process of actively seeking out persons with mental disabilities), segregation and institutional policies being pursued after the 1913 Mental Deficiency Act. This article highlights the conflicts with the regulating authorities caused by the Society's determination to maintain an independent approach; it eventually became an all-encompassing mental welfare organisation, despite working in a hostile environment with little financial support. By the 1930s, it was generally acknowledged to be the most experienced organisation in guardianship and workshop training in England. The Society's work can be seen as a dynamic innovative approach if viewed in relation to what was available at the time in systems of care in Britain.

Keywords: guardianship; ascertainment; foster-parent; Board of Control (BoC); Grace Woodhead; Dr Helen Boyle; Mental Deficiency Committee; Voluntary Association; borderline; Central Association for Mental Welfare (CAMW)


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