Changing Times, Changing Places
Catharine Coleborne, Waikato Mental History Group
Changing Times, Changing Places is a collective history of Mental Health Services in the Waikato region from 1910 to 2012, including Tokanui as a hospital, which provides a pictorial and narrative account of the environment, buildings, staff and patient activity, care and treatment, and the socio-political context of the changing times it examines. For those who lived, worked or who were hospitalised at Tokanui Hospital, the place was far more than the sum of its physical spaces. For many, it was home and whanau or family. For others, it was a sad place that took them away from home and family.
This history is a collection of the different stories of the many members of that community, and the new communities which have followed its closure in 1997. In thirteen chapters, it tells these stories through the eyes of several writers, providing competing perspectives, hoping to capture close to the full range of responses to, and experiences of, mental health in the Waikato over time. The result of a major collaborative research project over a long period of time to produce a written historical record of the Waikato Mental Health Services, the book includes images and personal reflections.
The Waikato Mental Health History Group includes Catharine Coleborne, John Graham, Stephanie Lambert and Suzette Poole. The team has pursued this collective history for around six years. Together, they believe that the current goal for the Waikato District Health Board Mental Health and Addictions Service, to earn the reputation as a service people trust with their loved ones’ care, is both important and timely. They hope that the histories contained in this book will provide some further understanding of the complex past of mental health care.
Half Court Press Digital Media (Aug, 2012)
ISBN: 9780473216238