Dr Hills Casebook - blog 3

The third instalment of Robert Fairclough’s blog about the Change Minds project which unites history, mental health, creative writing and theatre.

This week, I learned that by looking into the past you can get even more of an enlightening perspective on the present.

Richard Johnson presented to the group the information that not only did Dr. Hills’ directly treat his patients’ maladies, but he supplied entertainment for them too. I was open-mouthed when Richard informed us that the Dr. had held an annual summer fete at the Norfolk County Asylum, with such attractions as roundabouts, donkey rides and a sports day that included sack races. Not only that, some of the staff performed a farce, there were music evenings and Dr. Hills’ own children played the piano. There were even trips to the seaside.

Add to that the fact that the Asylum had a farm, on which the patients were encouraged to work to assist in their recovery, and you have a community – and a community spirit – that goes well beyond what we would today call ‘well being’. Dr. Hills almost had a holistic approach to physical and mental health.

The other side to this is that Darren France, the co-ordinator of Dr. Hills’ Casebook, and Belona Greenwood, the writer of the project’s upcoming theatre production, have been asking about our own experiences of the mental health system. Although I never came across anything on the scale of Dr. Hills’ generosity, to begin with – in the 1990s – the NHS provided counsellors and group therapy you didn’t have to pay for, there was no limit on the amount of sessions you could have and there were secure units if you needed them. Fast forward to 2017 and, in the middle of a mental health crisis at home, the best that Great Yarmouth’s Northgate Hospital could offer me was some pills which it took one of their over-worked staff three hours to deliver.

When I compare Dr. Hills’ caring, inclusive approach to mental health to the bleak landscape of threadbare services available to us over a hundred years later, I’m inclined to think that history is going backwards.

The good news is that the participants in Dr. Hills’ Casebook are, I’m sure, just the kind of supportive, creative community that Dr. Hills would liked to have been his legacy. The more I get to know them, the more people’s roles in the group are becoming more defined: Richard Johnson is an archivist second-to-none: Tess is very emotionally honest about how the project relates to her; Phil is our technical guy, trying out new ways of recording our Zoom meetings with his photographic equipment, while David and Becky keep us entertained with their dry and not-so-dry wit. Bel even suggested we have an Open Mic stand up comedy night based around mental health.

Wherever he is, I reckon Dr. Hills smiled approvingly at that idea.

'Robert Fairclough writes on a variety of subjects, including mental health and popular culture (sometimes both at once). He has written six books, contributes to magazines and websites, and writes regular blogs for The Restoration Trust. He can be contacted on robmay1964@outlook.com, and his website can be viewed at www.robfairclough.co.uk '