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Former Patients Remember Their Days in Old `Asylum`
Wednesday March 15th " I saw that the flower beds had gone, which was a great shame. Vandals had been at work up at the main block was where I had spent most of my time at Hellingly. I looked at the dominating water tower and remembered that I used to think there was something in the water to make you ill." – Taken from The Asylums: Gone But Not Forgotten A mental health service user has just produced a fascinating pamphlet, in which two former psychiatric patients talk about their experiences of re-visiting Hellingly Hospital in East Sussex. The hospital closed in the late 1980’s and is now derelict. The pamphlet - The Asylums: Gone But Not Forgotten, edited by Andrew Voyce, has been produced with the help of a Mind Millennium award. "The purpose of this collection is to provide a record of what it was like to be a patient from the patient’s point of view. All that will soon remain will be the official medical record." - Andrew Voyce, author of The Asylums: Gone But Not Forgotten Terry, a former patient of Hellingly, developed mental health problems after a sudden marriage breakdown. He was advised by social workers to enter Hellingly in the late 1970’s. His treatment consisted mainly of medication and industrial therapy. His memories of Hellingly were mainly positive ones, and he was sad to see that Hellingly had been vandalised and was in a bad state of repair. "If it was a nice day, you could go out to the patients club. It was possible to sit there all day with your tea. The extensive grounds were therapeutic – some days, it was possible to disappear with a packet of cigarettes into the grounds, then return for lunch, then off again." – Terry’s story C, another former patient of Hellingly, knew nothing of what was happening when he was admitted to Hellingly, and thought that it was a military training establishment. He was treated with medication and ECT, which he believes led to severe memory loss. Nevertheless, he looks back on Hellingly as " a terrific institution." "I was in a bad state, in a locked ward, even in a locked room. A few years ago I found the room I was in and it brought back bad memories." – Taken from The Asylums: Gone But Not Forgotten ***ENDS***
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