Appendix 1. Obituary of Dr. Neville Yeomans
Psychiatrist 1928 – 2000
Neville Yeoman's affection for and empathy with the original
inhabitants of Australia began very early in his life when, at the age of 3, he
was saved by an Aborigine after he had wandered off and become lost in the bush
in far north Queensland. This rescue from certain death, laid the foundations
for his later work with Indigenous communities as a carer, with an intense interest
in the peoples and their cultures. He was a co-healer rather than a prescriber
and believed in approaching the problems of mental health, alcoholism and drug
addiction from a community perspective. He devoted much of his life to
providing counselling and treatment to those most underprivileged and
handicapped especially women, alcoholics and drug addicts. After 1975, he
extended these activities to northern
Neville Yeomans was born in Sydney on 7 October 1928 to Percival
Alfred ("P.A.") and Rita Yeomans. It was the depression and life was
hard. His father, "P.A."
Yeomans, a mining engineer (who later became famous for his contributions to
agriculture including Keyline Farming,
The vagabond existence of the family meant that they were never in
the one place for long. Experiences such as attending 13 schools in one
12-month period, taught him that friendships were ephemeral and superficial.
He completed his schooling at
He was appalled by the methods used at the time to treat
psychiatric disease (especially shock treatment which he regarded as a crime)
and on his return from overseas he established and became the Director of
Fraser House at North Ryde Psychiatric Clinic,
During the period from 1959 to 1972, he ran "healing
community" courses for Aboriginal and Islander peoples in
He was the Co-ordinator of Community Mental Health for New South
Wales Health Department from 1965 to 1970.
He published many papers on psychiatric treatment (which are now
held in the Mitchell Library in Sydney) and with a colleague, wrote a book
"Fraser House: Theory Practice and Evaluation of a Therapeutic
Community" published by Springer, New York (Clark and Yeomans 1969).
As his interest in community work developed, he completed a
Diploma in Sociology at the
Not content with his already numerous qualifications he went on to
complete a Bachelor of Law degree from the
Neville Yeomans was drawn more and more to the area he grew up in
and in 1975 he moved back to north
In the early 1980's he became interested in and a keen qualified
practitioner of Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) which was a revolutionary
way of treating emotional states and of helping people overcome psychiatric
illness and addictions. He and a friend, Terry Widders, set up NLP Centres in
In 1987 he was a consultant to Petford Aboriginal Training Farm in
far
Neville Yeomans was a very intelligent, passionate and insightful
person with a deep sense of purpose and an ability to focus absolutely on the
job in hand, a characteristic that often made it difficult for those closest to
him. He was also an introspective, artistic and aesthetic person who loved
music (he played the clarinet) and art and he wrote poetry on a regular basis
from the mid 1960's. Many of the poems demonstrate his sharp wit and sense of
fun. The hundreds of poems he wrote, which give glimpses of the man within,
will be published shortly. His passion was to treat people in need, his skill
was his ability to engage with people and to make suggestions for change. His
dying wish was to leave a legacy of clinics for Aboriginal people to enable
them to help themselves. Neville Yeomans died in
Peter N. Carroll
Leura, N.S.W.
Appendix 2. List of Neville’s Early Actions and the
Isomorphic Social Action Neville had me Experience as an Action Researcher
|
Type |
Examples
of Neville’s Early Social Action |
Isomorphic
Metaphor |
|
Therapeutic
Community |
Fraser House |
Bondi Junction
Network Geoff Guest at
Petford Jail Groups |
|
Group Work |
Fraser House
Groups Human Relations
Groups |
Bondi Junction
groups Petford Groups Jail Groups Trauma Support
Groups ConFest Groups Family Therapy
contexts |
|
Healing Ways: Work Therapy Cultural Keyline Cultural Healing
Action Laceweb Healing
Ways Family therapy |
Fraser House: Committee work Canteen Suicide Support Domiciliary visits All of listed
action Fraser House Fraser House
outreach Laceweb & INMA Festivals,
happenings, events, parties Laceweb sharings Fraser House; Small
Therapeutic Community Houses; Laceweb action |
Letters to global governance Jail Groups Networking Internet This PhD All listed action All aspects of
Laceweb Action Research and Networking; Psychnet Networking Yungaburra New
Years Eve Party; Rainforest campouts; At Small Island Gathering; Psychnet
networking; Tagaytay Gathering and Pikit visit in Mindanao in the Tapped me into
Laceweb sharings in Qld. and Darwin Top End; Balmain Work-shops; other Engaging me in
family therapy contexts |
|
Festivals |
Watsons Bay;
Centennial Park; Paddington; ConFest; Cambelltown; Aquarius at Nimbin;
Cooktown |
ConFest;
Aboriginal & Islander Therapeutic Community Gathering; Australian South
Sea Islander gatherings |
|
Community Markets |
Paddington;
Yungaburra Rapid Creek |
Paddington;
Yungaburra; Rapid Creek; |
|
Intercultural |
Asia Club; |
Small Island
Gathering; Laceweb Networking among Aborigines, Torres Strait Islanders, Australian
South Sea Islanders, Hmong, West Papuans, Bougainvillians, and East Timorese
Communities; linking throughout SE Asia Oceania (Psychnet
2005a) |
|
Networking |
Fraser House
Family Friendship networking; Self help Groups; Laceweb Action |
Bondi Junction;
Laceweb Action – Atherton/Cairns; Rapid Creek; Byron Bay; Small Island
Gathering; Australian South Sea Islander Communities; SE Asia, Oceania, and
Australasia networks (Psychnet
2005a) |
|
Functional
Matrices/Self Help Groups |
Mingles;
Connexion; Inma Nelps; Nexus Groups; UN-Inma; etc. |
Mingles; Inma Nelps;
Nexus Groups; Funpo, UN-Inma |
|
Keyline |
P.A. Yeomans
action Use of Keyline at
Festivals |
1992 Aboriginal
& Islander Therapeutic Community Gathering; visit
to Nevallan and Yobarnie; Interaction with
Ken, Allan and Stephanie Yeomans |
|
Interfacing with
Dominant System |
Fraser House;
Community Mental Health; Psychiatric study group; Rio-Earth Summit |
Global-local
Realplay; Letters to Global governance bodies; RHSET, NACADA; Extegrity
documentation; Interfacing
between UNICEF E-Asia Regional Office & Psychnet; Dialogue with PNG
& East |
|
Interfacing
with business |
|
Current versions
of the Business Cultural Keyline Study Group: ongoing action research with
CEOs |
|
Everyday life
action |
Neem Production; Tree Oil
Extraction; Horses; Laceweb
action |
Laceweb action Psychnet
Networking; other E. Asia and Oceania networking, especially Tagaytay |
|
Local Governance |
Fraser House;
Small Therapeutic Community Houses; |
|
|
Micro
Gatherings/events |
Fraser House Blackmountain Yungaburra |
Blackmountain
rainforest party; Jail Groups Yungaburra new years eve party; ConFest Site
Trips |
Appendix 3. A Comparison of Goffman’s ‘Total
Institutions and Fraser House
Total Institutions Fraser House
|
The key fact of
total institutions is ‘the handling of many human needs by the bureaucratic organization
of whole blocks of people’ (p18). The focus is
the inmate (p 18). In the three
big chunks of life - work, play, and sleep - these happen in the same place,
under a single authority. All phases of the daily round are done with a large
group of the same people (p 17). People are
inmates and/or patients (p 17). They are
required to do the same thing together. All are treated
similarly (p 17). All phases of
the daily round are time bound and tightly scheduled (p 17). This schedule
of activities is imposed from above by explicit formal rulings by a body of
officials (p 17). The aim of this
scheduling is bureaucratic convenience (p 17). |
The key fact of
Fraser House is the embracing and satisfaction of individual and the
therapeutic community’s needs by the staff supporting and enabling residents
taking responsibility for themselves. The focus is
the resident in his/her social (family and friends) network. In the three
big chunks of life - work, play, and sleep - these happen in the same place.
Some residents went to outside work, Timing relating to work, play, and sleep
was in part scheduled by staff and in part determined by committee process.
Residents were constantly been rotated through various small and large groups
and patient run/controlled committees having differing mixes of people. People are
termed patients, residents or clients. While conscious of the potency of
terminology, within the wider hospital processes, residents were ‘patients’
and all the documentation designated them as ‘patients’. Big and small
groups and committee work was scheduled for people to do the same things
together. There was some free time. Ward committee patients decide timing
(lights out/on etc.) Rather than
being ‘treated’, people are ‘related to’ and each person is related to
differently. Spontaneous
social interaction with aspects of Fraser House life tightly scheduled (e.g.
groups and committee work). While small
groups and big group are required by officials, virtually every aspect of
community life is determined by the residents via committee structures that
are effectively run by the residents, sometimes with no staff as observers. A
body of rules governs a large part of schedules and these are also determined
by the residents. The aim of the
scheduling is to compel residents to enrich their psychosocial self and take
responsibility for making decisions affecting the quality of their life and
behaviour in community with others. |
|
All the staff
enforces the schedule of activities (p 17). The schedule
coalesces into a single rational plan designed to fulfil the official aims of
the institution (the power of the fittest) (p 17). There is a basic
split between a large managed group (the inmates) and a small staff (p 18). Both staff and
inmates are in uniforms owned by the institution (p 18). Staff work 8
hour shifts and are socially integrated into, and live outside (p 18). Inmates live
inside. Some may get passes (p 18). Inmates have no
contact with the outside world or have restricted supervised contact or
non-contact visits (p 18). Each group
tends to see each other in ‘narrow hostile stereotypes’ (p 18). Social distance
is typically great and often formally prescribed (p 19). Inmates are not
given information about what is being discussed about them by staff (p 20). |
Both residents
and staff are responsible for ensuring adherence to the schedule. Issues
relating to residents’ non-adherence to the schedule are resolved through
resident committees and community processes, especially at Big Group. The schedule
coalesces into a single sensible plan (survival of the fitting) designed by
the residents to support residents’ self-help and community help towards
psychosocial wellbeing. While staff and
inmates are in different roles, there is closeness between them including
strong friendships. More experienced residents share the enabling and support
roles with the staff. Some staff and
all inmates wear their own casual clothes (some use of uniforms by staff – refer Photo 19). As with Fraser
House. While inmates
live inside, some go out to work; some attend from 9 AM to 9 PM; others
typically can get passes; most go home for weekends; many attend as
outpatients. A condition of
being a resident at Fraser House is that family and friends have to attend
Big Group and small groups as ‘clients’. Whole families were in residence, so
for them, there was constant contact. Visits by family and friends to Fraser
House outside of big group visits were restricted. The staff
patient distinction is always maintained (cleavage) although residents
and staff see each other as individuals with unique abilities and potential.
Everyone in both groups is a potential resource for everyone else (cleavered
unity). Staff seek to have residents build upon their ecological bits. Social
closeness is typical and encouraged. Communication
is very open; anything may, be brought up in Big Group. Reporting is
controlled. Staff discussion regarding residents not shared with residents. |
|
The Institution
is deemed to belong to staff (p 20). The self of
inmates is systematically, if often unintentionally, mortified (p 24). People are
stripped on entry through a series of abasements: (i) degradation (ii) humiliation (iii) profanation of self (p 24). On arrival,
inmates lose their clothes and end up nude, given identical issue (all uniform);
stuff that never belongs to you (p 24). The barrier
between the inmate and the outside world marks the first curtailment of self
(p 24). The buildings
and plant are designed to separate and control, and to segregate sexes (p
24). In the outside
world inmates may take a number of separate roles, and typically none will
block their performance and ties in another role (role segregation). Being
inside automatically disrupts role scheduling. Staff determines inmate’s
roles (p 24). Every behaviour
encroaches on every role and will be used to curtail and mortify self (p 24).
Role
dispossession occurs (p 24). |
The capital
infrastructure is state owned; however, Fraser House as community ‘belongs’
to the therapeutic community and all involved. Friends and relatives
(attending as ‘outpatients’) are part of the therapeutic community. The enrichment
of self of residents is pervasively built into every aspect of the Unit. Prospective inmates
required to attend big group and small group twelve times with their
family/friends network signed in as outpatients to assist their bonding with
the community The initiation & admittance process was through the
traditional Each person allocated buddies and room mates Advised of Fraser House lore Told slogans Residents use
their own clothes. While being
‘inside’ and having friends and family required to visit, the absence of
barriers in the therapeutic community makes enrichment of self through
ecological interaction (almost) inevitable. Residents go on regular outside
trips (as recreational activities and as domiciliary and crisis therapists).
Some residents go to work. Most return home at weekends. While the
buildings and plant were a traditional design they were used in ways ensuring
constant interaction between residents, between residents and staff, between
residents and outpatients, and to integrate and foster interaction between
the sexes. The Dining Room and recreation rooms were located so as to
maximize mingling. Virtually
everything is known by everybody (especially through the ‘bring it up in groups’
protocol). Through the resident run committee process all residents help
evolve the various roles within the community. Resident committees determine
resident roles. People may volunteer for these roles, and all play a part in
deciding who participates for a time in the roles. There is some role
scheduling and some role spontaneity. Every behaviour
encroaches on every role and will be used to expand and enrich self. Enriched and
new role taking is encouraged and role flexibility occurs. |
|
Because of the
institutions pervasive intrusion into virtually every aspect of inmate’s
lives, the admission procedures include obedience tests and will-breaking
contests in order to compel co-cooperativeness from the outset (p 26). Inmates are
likely to be stripped of their usual appearance and their ‘identity kit’ (p
30). Inmates subject
to indignities - examples: . must use spoon . must beg/humbly . ask for
little things . being teased, . sworn at and
ignored (p 230) The boundary individuals
place between their being and the environment is invaded. The embodiments of
self are profaned (p 32). Unavoidable
contact with aliens (no choice) and contaminating of objects of self-feeling
- such as one’s body, immediate actions, thoughts and possessions (p 36). There is the
violation of one’s informational preserve regarding self. During admission,
information about past behaviour (especially discreditable facts) are
collected and written up in dossiers available to staff (p 32). |
While the
schedule of activities is to be complied with, considerable freedom is given
till the person is immersed in the community. Then tough constraints are
placed on mad and bad behaviour by staff and other residents. Conditions may
apply regarding re-entry if a resident elects to leave early. Residents’
appearance is unchanged or they are encouraged to improve it. Any staff or
resident subjecting anyone else to indignities would be censured. Boundaries between
self and environment open to community view and may be perturbed and
cleavered if deemed dysfunctional. Potential for all residents and staff
being there to support residents’ self help. The embodiments of self are
respected and celebrated. Unavoidable
contact with resident/staff enablers (no choice) and processes interrupting
and sabotaging madness and badness towards decontaminating objects of
self-feeling - such as one’s body, immediate actions, thoughts and
possessions. There is the
ecological violation of one’s informational preserve regarding self. During
admission, information about past behaviour (especially discreditable and
creditable facts) are collected and made available to staff and residents as
part of local knowings of everyone in the therapeutic community. Any
non-ecological use of this information is interrupted and censured. |
|
Inmates undergo
mortification of the self by contamination of the physical kind - by forced
interpersonal contact and social relationship (p 36). Enforced public
character of visits by friends and relatives (p 38). Contaminative
exposure by having mail and phone calls monitored, limited and censored (p
38). Contaminative
exposure by denouncing significant others, especially when others physically
present (p 38). The usual
relationship between the actors and their acts is disrupted (p 41). The above
firstly by ‘looping’, where an agency creating a defensive response in inmates
hones in on this response for its next attack. The reaction to the situation
is collapsed back into the situation. Inmates can’t defend themselves by
creating distance between the mortifying situation and themselves (p 41). Another form of
looping follows from the lack of role segregation (desegregation) allowing
behaviour in one role/context to be brought into every other role/context (p
41). |
Inmates undergo shifts within the self by being placed in
dorms with one ‘mirror’ person and two ‘opposites’ (for example, two
‘under-controlled/ over-active’ residents with two
‘over-controlled/under-active’ residents - with forced interpersonal contact
and social relationship compelling a shift to the psycho-socially functional
middle ground. This applies to
visits by friends and relatives attending big group. Typically no
monitoring. Some contact restrictions and limits to contact with
dysfunctional others. Community based
pressure to ‘bring it up in the Big Group’; concern about consequences for the
community as a whole, and personally experiencing the results of the process
‘working’ had residents exposing others, especially significant others. As for Fraser
House, though the behaviour of residents and the outcomes of their behaviour
are constantly a matter for group discussion towards functionality. Within pervasive frames of ‘self help’ and ‘therapeutic
community’, looping occurs where the full range of resident’s responses,
(especially defence and avoidance responses to the therapeutic community),
may be reflected back to them and be the subject of discussion and action.
Typically, any distancing of themselves from their acts and the consequences
of their acts is challenged. As for Fraser
House, although within a context of enabling self-help and mutual-help. |
|
In mental
asylums, a permissive environment entraps inmates to ‘project’ or ‘act out’
their typical difficulties, which they are then confronted with during
therapy sessions (p 42). Inmates are regimented
and tyrannized in that within civil society, the issue of ‘correctness’
rarely arises. Inmates have to constantly look over shoulders to see if
criticism or other sanctions are coming. Minute matters, usually those of
personally taste and choice in the outside world, are prescribed by authority
(p 42). Each
specification robs the individual of an opportunity to balance needs and
objectives in a personally efficient way and opens up lines of action to
sanctions by staff (p 43). The autonomy of
the act is violated (p 43). Economy of
action is disrupted by being required to ask permission for supplies for
minor activities; adults placed into suppliant submissive roles unnatural for
adults; allowing ‘interception’ by staff, (being put off, teased, denied,
questioned or ignored) (p 45). Regimentation
by being required to perform regulated activity in unison with others (p 46). Use of an echelon form of authority in that any member of
staff has certain rights to discipline or impose sanctions on any member of
the inmate class (p 46). |
As for Fraser
House, though within a context of enabling self help. Permissiveness
continues till the person is enamoured and imbedded in the community. Things
may then get humanely and ecologically tight and tough and dysfunctional
behaviour interrupted. ‘Enabling
wellbeing of self and others’ is the standard for both residents and staff in
relating with and intervening in the life of others. Some minute matters are
pre-scribed by decision of resident committees. Specification
is decided by residents and staff in daily group and social interaction,
providing an opportunity to balance needs and objectives in both a personal
and community sensible way and opens up lines of action to enhancement by
all. The autonomy of
the act is supported at the individual and community levels, with scope to
explore fit in both sectors. Economy of action
is facilitated by residents being in charge of supplies for minor activities.
This places adults into active responsible roles natural for adults and
allows ‘enabling support’ by staff. Some
regimentation by being required to perform regulated activity in unison with
others within a context where residents have established most of the ground
rules. Use of a communal form of communal empowerment in that any
resident or member of staff may provide enabling support to another resident
or member of staff. The Ward Committee has authority to enforce sanctions for
breach of rules. |
|
Echelon
authority and strict enforcement of regulations may result (especially in new
arrivals) in living with chronic anxiety about consequences of breaking rules
(p 46). Loss of
self-determination through having no capacity to decide certain bodily
comforts such as soft bed and quietness at night (p 47). Even the
capacity for self determination by the mode of response given back to
authority may be denied or discounted by staff ignoring the response and
reframing the response as a symptom of pathology (p 47). Curtailment of
self may be almost total (p 49). It is largely
the privilege system that provides the framework for personal reorganization
(p 51). Firstly,
proscriptive and prescriptive house rules layout required conduct (p 51). Secondly, there
are a small number of clearly defined rewards or privileges held out in
exchange for obedience. The inmates’ world
is built around these minor privileges - e.g., a coffee and a smoke. These
are akin merely to the absence of deprivations one normally expects not to
sustain (p 51). Release is elaborated into the privilege system (p 53). |
Community,
Family and individual empowerment and strict enforcement of healing ways may
result, especially among new arrivals, in living with ecological levels of
anxiety, e.g. overactive/under-controlled may use-fully have more anxiety,
and under-active/ over-controlled may usefully have less anxiety. As for some
aspects of Fraser House (such as the ‘soft bed’). However, residents have
full control of regulations and involvement in the therapeutic change
processes, ensuring things like a quiet nights sleep. The capacity
for self-determination. Ecological responses given back to authority would be
supported by staff at every opportunity; residents would be encouraged to
explore the con-sequences of non-ecological responses to other residents and
staff. Staff denying or discounting responses would be censured. Virtually
everything fosters enriching the self towards self determining action and
sociable relating with other selves in community. Every aspect of
the values based caring therapeutic community provides the framework for
personal re-organization. In Fraser House
the bulk of proscriptive and prescriptive rules are decided by the residents. Residents evolve their own lore and rules. They have free access
to their own canteen. Privileges are generally a right for all, though the
Ward Committee could withdraw rights for a breach of rules. Non-ecological behaviour may see a withdrawal of some
privileges. Release not linked to privileges; rather based on
ecological functioning and capacity to fit into outside community - though
required to leave after six months stay. This was reduced to three months to
foster change. |
|
Thirdly, there are
the punishments including withdrawal of privileges (even small privileges)
and these assume great/terrible significance (p 51-2). Rewards and
punishment received by inmates are only received by children and animals in
outside world (p 53). Rewards and
punishment woven into the residential work system with certain places, roles,
and perks associated with reward (p 53). There is among
inmates an informal system of what Goffman calls ‘secondary adjustments’ -
practices that don’t directly challenge staff, but allow inmates to obtain
forbidden satisfactions (‘the angles, deals, ‘knowing the ropes’) (p 56). An informal
inmate system ensures that no inmate informs on others’ ‘secondary
adjustments’; violators defined as ‘finks’ ‘squealers’, and ‘rats’ (p 56). Inmate support
groups developing in opposition to the system (p 56-57). Typically,
inmates find out that fellow inmates have all the properties of ordinary,
occasionally decent human beings worthy of sympathy and support. Past
offences cease to be an effective means of judging personal qualities (p
57-59). In therapeutic institutions, the inmates become less able
to protect their ego by direct hostility towards the institution (p 59). |
The rules for sanctions
were evolved and administered by the patients and outpatients. Sanctions have
significance. Rewards and
punishments were not imposed top down. Sanctions were context and age
relevant. Consequences
flowed from context and everyday life milieu. The everyday
life milieu worked its constituting potency. Anyone seeking ‘advantage over’
and ‘egocentrically working the system’ would be confronted with this by
patients, outpatients and staff. The oft-invoked
slogan and practice was, ‘bring it up in the group’. Support groups
fostered and linked to the to Fraser House community. There were functional
and dysfunctional factions and cliques forming and disbanding regularly.
Dysfunctional ones were cleavered. The same. Developing
resident support groups as an integral part of the system. The Fraser House system enhances ego, identity and
mindbody integrity and support of the Unit as a functional community. |
|
Secondary
adjustments and adapting: Firstly, by using regression (situational withdrawal) as a
defence; Secondly, flagrant non-cooperation; Thirdly, colonization, fitting in and ‘doing it easy’; Fourthly, conversion - becoming the perfect inmate; Fifthly, playing it cool by a combination of the above. (p
61-64). Typically,
neither ‘stripping’ processes nor reorganizing processes seem to have lasting
effect, partly because of secondary adjustments, counter mores and playing it
cool (p 64). The presence of
release anxiety due to disculturation and stigmatisation (p 69-71). Inmate’s
families have little understanding of the institution and can cause major
embarrassment to inmates (p 123-135). |
Some, because
of prior experience of traditional hospitals, may set out to make use of
secondary adjustments, though such behaviour would be challenged and
immediately brought up in a group. Being involved in Fraser House minimizes
the necessity to resort to these ‘secondary adjustments’. Reorganizing
and re-constituting pro-cesses had lasting effect. All involved are vigilant
in stopping processes that may strip. Processes
foster residents expanding and enriching their culture (as ‘way of life’).
Close involvement of family and friends being in therapy themselves minimizes
resident stigma as does domiciliary care visits by those who are about to be
released. Typically, residents leave with a functional supportive network of
around seventy. Dysfunctional
family and friends who are sabotaging a resident would be confronted and
possibly isolated. Resident’s families typically have intimate understanding
of the institution and are actively involved in resident healing (and
typically, self healing) as well as potential for involvement in the unit’s
committees. |
Appendix 4.
Neville’s Forward to his Father’s Book
‘
FORWARD
A major change in values and in behaviour is beginning to
occur in
Humankind is a bio-social species. His biological survival
depends on harmonious working with Nature. Harmony comes only when we give as
well as take.
The world has paid a terrible price for the Industrial Revolution
and the advance of science. We had to be ruthless to control and harness the
forces of Nature; to become machine-like, to make machines and to think like
computers, to conquer ignorance. But the battle is won. Now we must re-humanise
ourselves and share the fruits of our labour. The swing away from the mistakes
of the chemical solution of biological problems is beginning. Natural food
movements suggest we are searching for a healthier way. The growth of community
groups in ecology, welfare, education and the arts suggest we want to become
better and happier humans.
We alone are in a position to accept the best from all
continents in ideas, people and ways of living.
History took humanity from the tribe to the
My father's work and the contributions of all Australians is
needed for the task ahead (Blumer and Shibutani 1970).
Neville Yeomans.
Appendix 5.
Diagnosis of Fraser House Population as at 30th June 1962
Reference
(Clark, A. & Yeomans, N., 1969 Page 56)
Male
Female Total
Disorders Caused by or Associated
With Impairment of Brain Tissue
1. Acute and Chronic brain disorders 0 0 0
2. Mental deficiency, mild with epilepsy 1 0 1
TOTAL
1 0 1
Disorders
of Psychogenic Origin
Psychotic Disorders
Affective Reactions:
Manic Depressive reaction depressive type 1 1 2
Schizophrenic Reactions:
Schizophrenic reaction, simple type 3 8 11
Schizophrenic reaction, hebephrenic type 0 3 3
Schizophrenic reaction, catatonic type 2 2 4
Schizophrenic reaction, paranoid type 3 6 9
Schizophrenic reaction, acute
undifferentiated type 1 2 3
Schizophrenic reaction, schizo-affective type 2 0 2
TOTAL 12 22
34
Psychoneurotic Disorders
Psychoneurotic Reactions
Anxiety reaction 0 1 1
Conversion reaction 0 1 1
Obsessive - compulsive reaction 1 1 2
Depressive reaction 2 2 4
TOTAL 3 5 8
Personality disorders
Personality Pattern Disturbances:
Inadequate personality 0 1 1
Schizoid personality 1 0 1
Sociopathic Personality Disturbances
Anti-social reaction 3 2 5
Dyssocial reaction 1 2 3
Sexual deviations:
homosexuality 4 0 4
pedophilia 2 0 2
prostitution and beastiality 0 1 1
Personality Trait Disturbances
Compulsive personality 1 0 1
Addiction:
alcohol 4 2 6
drugs (bromides; amphetamines;
narcotics) 1 1 2
Both alcohol and drugs 4 1 5
TOTAL 21 10 31
___________________________________________________________
COMPOSITE
TOTAL 37 37 74
Appendix 6.
A Case History of an Aboriginal Micro-Encephalic Aboriginal Person Transferred
to Fraser House
A Case Study
synthesised from discussions with Neville (Dec 1993, July, 1998)
As an example of
an asylum back ward Aboriginal individual, Neville described the case of an
isolate micro-encephalic Aboriginal person (born with a very small brain) who
presented with few skills. He had the body of a twelve year old though he was
an adult. He had no capacity for speech and would make aversive noises, for
example, snarling and screeching. As well, he would get angry and bite. Within
the Unit, at Neville’s instigation, this person was related to as if he was a
‘lovable little puppy dog’. This matched his optimal functioning. After this he
soon socialised, became friendly, contented and easily fitted in to Fraser
House society.
Neville (Dec
1993, Aug 1998) described his cries as:
Soon becoming harmonious and naturally expressive of mood -
typically, contentment and happiness, compared to the prior screeching. He had
probably moved close to the optimum functioning of his mindbody. Thereafter, he
was attached to various factions. He was able to move back out into the
community in a care-house and fit in with the house life as a normal micro-encephalic
person rather than a dysfunctional abnormal one.
Neville was
fascinated that this person adjusted so well to social life and his change was
a convincer for Neville that emotional freeing up is the core of all therapy.
To quote Neville (July 1998), ‘With no frontal cortex to speak of, how else
could he have changed?’
Appendix 7. The Roles of Fraser House Nurses
Reference
– (Yeomans, 1965a, Vol. 4)
THE
ROLES OF FRASER HOUSE NURSES
(From the Fraser
House Staff Handbook)
Preamble
As with all new work situations, so
to working as a new nurse in this community means coming to grips with a degree
of initial stress. The job is not easy
at first, and one thing is certain - it can only be done well by all staff
members seeing themselves as members of a TEAM.
Only then can new tasks become tolerable and the difficulties
surmountable. This is the first and most
important working rule to be learned, and with the acceptance of it everything
else will tend to fall into place.
This basic point can’t be stressed
too much, and new nurses are advised to lean heavily on the team in the first
few weeks in particular. By communicating difficulties, responsibilities will
be spread out and training will continue. Nothing has to be faced alone.
The staff team gives the example on
which the patients will perforce model themselves. It has been a lesson well
learned here, as in other therapeutic communities all over the world, that when
the staff team pulls together the patients tend to do likewise, and from this
comes the amalgamation of true community effort that results in success all
along the line in the treatment program.
Perhaps the most immediate
observation made by a nurse coming to work in this therapeutic community for
the first time, is that the patients themselves have had a great deal of
authority delegated to them. Indeed, in some matters they are virtually the
sole authority. At first glance it will seem fantastic that patients assess and
admit new patients; review progress and institute treatment procedures; make
new rules and alter old ones; mete out discipline, etc.
To many new nurses and doctors as
well, and particularly to those whose previous experience was connected with
the physically ill in the general hospital field, or who come from psychiatric
settings more formalized in approach, all of this will be right out of line
with their training and role appreciation. Adjustment will have to be made, and
acceptance that this is necessary is the first and most important step towards
fitting into the altered (and ever changing) role required.
In sum, nurses here at Fraser House
are not so much doing FOR the patients as working WITH and SHARING an
experience. This is basically what is expected.
Understanding the reason behind the
differences in work standards and altering roles helps - no one would be
willing to change his work pattern in, or the why he sees himself in work
without reasonable explanation. If the
therapeutic community can be viewed as necessary evolution change towards
democratic self-discipline, and if the nurses’ role can be seen as becoming
more therapeutic as it moves away from that of custodian towards autonomy for
the patients, then the first step is made.
CONCEPT
The basic role of the nurse in
Fraser House is that of therapist and this means accepting the patients as
worthwhile and worthy of help and so, aiming to change their deviant behaviour
and the deviant ways they see themselves or others. The nurse also is a representative of
society, and becomes involved with patients in order to return their neurotic,
psychotic or other deviant behaviour to the norm of this society.
The nurse remains as much a
therapist in being with one patient or with an informal group of patients as in
formal group therapy. To be a therapist
means to express real caring and at times, discipline about patients. Training in psycho and socio-therapeutic
techniques is a continuing process and the nurse enters into research work and
the domiciliary field as well. The
nursing staff makes up the largest portion of the staff team and has 24-hour
close interpersonal contact with the patients.
The role is vital, and in many ways is the most important.
ROLE
Nurses are assigned in teams to regional
areas at the moment - Lane Cove, Ryde, Rest of North Shore, other areas. Each regional team is expected to be
responsible for knowing their area, its problems and helping agencies etc.. Moreover nurses in each team are expected to
come to know all in-patients and outpatients of that area; to be specially
involved in the appropriate regional small groups, both in the community and in
the Unit; to record progress notes on their regional patients; be part of both
for medical officer and follow-up committee planning for the patients of their
region.
Nurses working in community and
social psychiatry ‘steal’ many of the roles of psychiatrists, psychologists,
medical offices, sociologists and social workers. This gives the nurse much more power to initiate
and decide and also the accompanying responsibility.
So the role of the nurse in Fraser
house is seen as complex and wholly therapeutic, using a team approach in a
therapeutic community to set the climate for personality change and social
reorganization.
The new nurse will at first learn
various areas, and these will be filled in to fit into shape as the tour of
duty lengthens. An hour or so will be spent with a senior staff member on the
first day for initial induction discussions, and the newcomer is paired off to
work with a nurse who is versed in Unit procedure. Experience has shown how the
patients actually give a great deal of help to new staff in aiding in their
orientation. The new nurse will receive plenty of support to fit into the
community. Fraser House traditions are now well established. There are no great
dissatisfactions to overcome.
Nurses are on the staff to work as
members of a therapeutic team, and to receive a training that has profitable
personal and career rewards. Better training and greater work satisfaction for
staff are basic aims in therapeutic communities.
GROUP THERAPY
The significance of group therapy in
Fraser House may be gauged by the fact that there are about three thousand
groups structured in a year involving twice this number of man-hours by the
nursing staff. Reporting sessions, attended by nursing staff follow each of
these groups, also consume more man-hours devoted to analysis and
interpretation of each group, and exchange of information brought out by these
groups. These reporting sessions are also for continuous training in all
aspects of community and social psychiatry
Small groups are made up of from
eight to twelve people, and are allocated daily. These allocations are made to
conform to different patterns according to age and marital state, according to
social class and marital state, according to sex and marital state. Also, there
are intergenerational groups consisting of patients and their families, of each
medical officer attached to the Unit, and groups made up of ‘withdrawn’
patients.
The unstructured groups are special
groups held for particular patients for various reasons, e.g., they may be
planned and scheduled for certain times during the day or night when a
patient’s relatives arrive from the country. Or they may be spontaneous, when a
relative arrives unexpectedly. Or they may be held as and when a particular
patient, or patient family becomes disturbed over some crisis which arises.
THE THERAPIST IN SMALL GROUP THERAPY
The role of small group therapist
and observer has always been the province of the nurse in Fraser House, and
represents part of the rise in therapeutic status. Nurses have become
therapists in their own right.
The first essential in taking a
group is to see it as a meeting, and like all meetings, there is a need for a
chairman to conduct affairs and keep issues to the point.
The initial function of the
therapist is to see that the group functions as a group. It may be necessary
for him to be quite directive in order to achieve this in some groups, but on
the other hand it may just happen anyway even if he adopts a completely passive
and wordless role. How active or passive, directive or non-directive the
therapist is or chooses to be, may be influenced by many things – e.g., the
attitude or mood of the group itself and tensions built up prior to and during
its running; the type of group and purpose, or the themes introduced during the
group. The therapists own personality is a basic factor which determines
handling, and this may vary from day to day depending on the therapist’s mood,
and also on his attitude to the type of group or even some of the people
contained in it.
It should be said here that, whilst one
might be influenced to some extent by the way certain therapists conduct the
group, it is inadvisable and unwise, and indeed well nigh impossible for one
therapist to copy another, for the previously stated reason that the
therapist’s own personality is a basic factor in determining the handling of
groups. So that even if one decided on a particular therapist as ones ‘idol’,
one should not attempt to emulate too closely. Because of this ‘personality’
factor and other rather intangible factors, there are not many rigid rules
which can be generalized to apply to all groups, but the following can
be applied to most:
THEMES
If a theme is introduced, and it is
considered to be not too superficial or inappropriate, the group should pay
some attention to it, and not change the theme to another without good reason.
If an attempt to change the theme is made, it may be done deliberately by a
patient for a fairly obvious reason (such as a personality clash with someone
involved in the previous theme), or a less obvious reason such as an
unconscious identification and a consequent wish to avoid the theme. It may
also be done through plain insensitivity on the part of the person making the
attempt at the change. There are many reasons for these moves, and it is the therapist’s
role to decide on the dynamics of the situations and then to make use of them
by feeding them straight back into the group at the time, and if necessary, to
make an interpretation of the dynamics operating in the events and occurrences.
It is also in the province of the
therapist to direct the group away from superficial themes or from discussing
themes in a superficial manner. The therapist, in order to discourage
superficiality, may find it necessary to commence the group immediately he enters
the room, by physically structuring the group in such a way that he gains
attention, establishes some kind of control, and incidentally builds some
initial tension within the group. This, of course is not always necessary or
desirable, but is often helpful in dealing with groups of teenagers who tend to
spread themselves around the room, put their feet up on chairs, and throw
matches and cigarettes about. These practices in themselves are quite harmless,
but in group are often used as avoiding tactics, and are apt to wreck and
render valueless the group itself. So the therapist can avert these disruptions
when he enters the room by making everyone get up and draw their chairs into a
tight circle in the centre of the room and disallowing feet up on chairs.
In general, the therapist should
make use of what is going on in each particular group at the time it is taking
place. He has first to be able to recognize what is going on and he can only do
this through observation and experience. The way he uses these things which are
going on within the group depends to a large extent on the therapist himself –
again the personality factor. Even though a therapist is inexperienced, and
perhaps not very confident, he should keep in mind that he brings something
very valuable to the group with him – something which no one else can do in the
same way – the sum total of his own unique life experience. When used with
confidence, this is a very powerful force which all nurses have at their
disposal.
INTERACTION AND INTEREST
If most of the group is involved in
interaction, it goes without saying that they are also interested. However,
interest can be very high even though there is not much interaction. Look at
their faces, their feet, their hands, their respiration, the way they sit, and
it will be known if they are interested or not. Interaction may not be high if
the therapist has found it necessary to be active or directive. This sometimes
must be the case.
TENSION
There will usually be varying
amounts of tension as the group progresses, both from the group as a whole, and
from individual members. Silences usually build up while tension is mounting,
and the best way to use this tension is not to break these silences; let the
members of the group do it as they will when they can no longer stand the
tension – and then see what is released with the tension and make use of it.
MOOD
The mood of a group is sometimes
sustained throughout, but more often it changes, ranging through many emotions
and frequently depending to some extent on the build up and release of tension,
the themes discussed and the manner of the discussion, the interaction and the
interest, and the cross-identification of those who interact. The role adopted
by the therapist is also important here. Once again, the emotions which set the
mood for the group are used.
Appendix 8. Fraser House Big Groups
Reference
- (Yeomans,
N. 1965a, Vol. 5, p. 34)
Fraser House Big Groups
Whereas much has been achieved over
the years in the way of explanation and handling of individual and small group
difficulties, little is to hand to clarify the acknowledged emotional forces
and the psychotherapeutic techniques of large community groups.
Most individual maladjustments can
be readily recognized by seeing a personality at conflict with himself and his
environment. Small groups portray the ‘family’ setting and inter-personal
interaction. But ‘Big Groups’ forming as they do the backdrop to all therapy in
this Unit, are not explainable adequately in the term of psychology or
psychiatry previously applied to the individual patient or even to the
classical group situation.
The sciences of sociology and social
psychology, with their study of whole collections of people and the interplay
of these groupings within entire societies, are used to explain both these
dynamics of the Big Groups and the therapeutic directions of the whole
community. Theories of behaviour of crowds and audiences apply to the Big
Groups in particular.
The techniques used in handling
these meetings are principally our own and have evolved through testing and
retesting of basic theories by adoption and ‘trimming’ of those found
successful by some leaders, and by constant discussion and evaluation of the
problems these community groups pose.
The community meetings held at
Fraser House are of two main types and a third is gradually evolving. Morning
community groups have two main therapeutic functions; personality change is the
aim of four meetings, while social control is the focus of the Thursday morning
administrative group. Evening Big Groups, though not compulsory, are invariably
well attended by in-patients. But by far, the majority attending can be
classified as outpatients and these receive the bulk of the attention. With
family therapy as a principle, the projective interplay of the various families
present characterizes these meetings to such a degree as to almost typify the
aim of the evening Big Groups.
The setting is a large hall (the
Centre Block) in which clear speaking is adequate, central to both wings of the
building. Seating is in two rows at the sides and one end with a single row at
the end nearest the entrance door. The group leader usually sits in the centre
of this row, but is free to move according to his or her dictates. All of the
chairs face centrally so that, as much as possible, everyone is in view and
speakers can face each other. But principally the people are
shoulder-to-shoulder as in an audience as well as being members of a single
crowd - usually numbering about one hundred persons.
Two members of the nursing staff
(one male - one female) observe and record the meeting from a detached point
behind the back row.
Other staff members (medical,
nursing, research, etc) intersperse themselves among the patients, paying
particular attention to the three inner corners (notorious geographically for
the most destructive and resistive sub-groups) but leaving the doorway clear of
staff. Portion of a row is reserved here to lessen the interruption made by
latecomers.
It has become traditional that the
four ‘therapeutic’ Big Groups commence with a reading of the ‘Ward Notes’ by
one of the patients. On Thursdays this is deferred till after the various
committee reports and elections. In essence these ward notes serve the purpose
of an informal Unit newspaper and comprises all manner of notifications from
grouches about yesterday’s foodstuff to staff warnings against suspected
‘conmanship’.
Usually the therapist then allows
the group to enter into spontaneous ‘free floating’ discussion until a general
interconnecting theme is apparent. This may then be pursued with promptings
towards interaction between different generations or social classes or
psychiatric opposites – or perhaps to tie in together for mutual support those
with similar difficulties, personally or because of family or life-crisis
situation.
At times the focus might fall on one
particular patient or family to highlight a special need, and it is quite
common for sub-groups or cliques to merit attention. These latter are
constantly forming, breaking and re-forming, and the group leader much of the
time finds it impossible to be aware of these changes and undercurrents. The
interspersing of staff members throughout does much to obviate this as these
moves can be discussed later in the reporting session, or if urgent, brought to
the attention in the group by the staff member aware of the moves. Most
meetings see the group as a whole reacting much like an audience to a few main
actors. This can be constructive as an insight-gaining process as the personal,
intra and inter-family or sub-group projections are portrayed and leadership
values rise or fall. At other times when matters affecting the internal
security of the community arise or pressures are brought to bear from outside
sources, interpersonal differences are dropped for combined feeling and action
and the Unit becomes united as its projection against threat is shown. So the
audience-type reaction displaces to behaviour more attributable to that of a
crowd. When these crowd-like emotional forces move the whole community, the
opportunity is presented to harness these towards a therapeutic goal which can
do more in a single hour towards personality change for more people than many
months of other therapy. Herbert Blumer (1970) says of these forces:
People become aroused and more likely to be carried away by impulses and
feelings; hence rendered more unstable and irresponsible. In collective
excitement, the personal make-up of individuals is more readily broken and in
this way the conditions prepared for the formation of new forms of behaviour
and for the re-organization of the individual. In collective excitement,
individuals may embark on lines of conduct which previously they would not have
thought of, much less dared to undertake. Likewise, under its stress and with
opportunities for the release of tension, individuals may incur significant
re-organization in the sentiments, habits and traits of personality.
When both the staff and patients are
working well together in the Unit, a peak of enthusiasm is reached at times
when everyone sees almost any move at all as being gainful. New enterprises are
embarked upon with an eagerness that is almost inspired and success is a
certainty. Whereas perhaps a month earlier the same move would have met an
equally certain failure. All improvements in expanded therapy services and the
patient-government structure (and the recent acquisition of the Unit vehicle)
have been adopted at such times.
The opposite of gain is loss and
this is felt most acutely in a feeling-wave by the entire community at a time
of bereavement, deprivation or mourning – when a fellow-patient’s close
relative dies; rejecting parents spurn pleas for help; or there has been a
serious or fatal attempt at suicide. Here the all-pervading shared sadness can
give rise to depressives becoming overwhelmed with emotional forces of loss and
breaking into bitter tears as a sign of externalising their feelings of
aggression and loneliness. The sincere sympathy given by fellow-patients and
therapist at these times can do much to consolidate future lessening of
inhibition while false exaggeration of hope is avoided.
Again, when as a whole the Big Group
is swayed by frustration, contagious aggression and excitement result; just as
contagious as the feelings of fear and panic experienced due to a shared threat
anywhere.
The recognition and use of these
crowd feelings by the therapist are usually intuitive. The leader must ‘feel’
these and employ them – they are of the greatest value when utilized
therapeutically towards corrective emotional experience. This can be rated as
either an individual, a family, the whole group, or any combination of these
being helped in this direction.
Community meetings are followed by a
report by the two official observers, and comment by all staff members present,
including the therapist who took the group. Points assessed are:
·
Mood
·
Theme
·
Value and
interaction
·
Therapist’s
role
·
Techniques
employed
From these ‘post-mortems’ comes much
of the knowledge needed. At the moment this seems by no means exhaustive. The
aim must be always to look at the community in the ‘BIG’ – as a whole and this
certainly is no easy matter.
FURTHER THEORY AND EXAMPLE
The Fraser House Therapeutic
Community is a sub-community of Lane Cove and Ryde aimed at all the different
social problems of these areas. There is an inherent movement towards change
resulting from the emotional contact of people with different problems. This change is a therapeutic change if the
atmosphere is one of help, respect for the worthwhileness of each person, and
discipline where necessary. A professional man, father of a schizophrenic girl,
once abused the patients and the Unit, because he was sick of people of lower
education etc. telling him what to do. His education and professional knowledge
were not in doubt, but his capacity as a loving trusting father was. Those like
him in age and education had tried and failed to change him in the past. Those
unlike him could do so with much more effect.
This therapeutic community attempts
to reproduce normal life in many ways, particularly in allowing the development
of emotional storms (as they occur in families) and in not enforcing overly
good behaviour, as is the usual hospital pattern. Like normal life too, there
are limits and so effective discipline is a major part of the program,
especially for those with antisocial or hostile problems.
The process of change for the
disturbed patient and family may be described in many ways. One is that the
Unit attempts to provide emotionally corrective experiences in the conflict
area. This can be seen in the spreading of a theme within a group or in the
contagion of feeling within the Unit that always most deeply affects those with
the problems in the area of conflict which set off the emotion. When sexual
interference becomes an emotional topic, the experienced therapist can tell at
a glance all those women and girls who have had a similar experience - it
screams from their faces. They can then be helped to face this and all the
covering up about it, in them and in their family.
Success for a therapist is now known
to depend very much on how much the patient realizes that the therapist cares.
This cannot be acted by the therapist – and here lies the importance of
learning to relax and be oneself and express oneself in the therapeutic
situation
Caring for the patient does not mean
loving and accepting everything he does. You don’t care for someone if you let
them wreck themselves or harm others. It means coming to see and feel that the
patient is a person worth helping and changing. It means to accept the person,
but reject their deviant problems (e.g., love a depressed person, but NOT their
depression – want to change their depression). Particularly it means rejecting
abnormal behaviour, particularly that which is harmful to others. So here
caring will mean love and discipline.
There are some points which help in
the therapeutic approach to whole families in groups:
The emotional comfort and
satisfaction of the Unit staff is one of the most significant features of the
therapeutic program. The numerous staff meetings aim to foster this.
Specifically, their role is to prevent the development of covert, hidden
conflict between staff members about patients. Such conflicts are proven to
result in overt patient disturbance. The staff remains the most powerful
members of a therapeutic community and their welfare and comfort are of
paramount importance.
Appendix 9. The Case of the Insightful Cleaner
A case study synthesised from discussions with Neville (Dec,
1992, Aug 1998)
Recall all staff attended Big Group, including the cleaners. Some
cleaners became very insightful therapists, the ‘onlooker seeing most of the
game’. On one occasion mentioned by Neville (Dec, 1992) a cleaner spotted that
a catatonic women had drawn a beautiful horse in a moment of lucidity. The
cleaner mentioned about the catatonic’s drawing skills during a Big Group and
suggested that a drawing pad and coloured pencil-set be left beside her so that
she may be prompted to stay lucid longer. This was done and the catatonic
patient did start to draw. To encourage her further, a full painting kit was
arranged to be placed beside her. After a time a set of poster colours in pots
were set up, and a nearby wall was designated as the ‘mural space’ and
mentioned her name. In the end this patient came out of her catatonia and
painted beautiful big murals over a section of the Unit. At one stage she was
running out of walls to paint and this coincided with word being received on
the grapevine that a fund cutting inspection team would arrive that might
recommend closing the Unit if it was deemed too alternative. After discussion
in Big Group about this impending inspection it was agreed that everyone would
help in painting over the murals and returning the unit to white. When the
inspectors arrived they found all the staff in their white uniforms in a white
unit. The inspectors saw little that was out of the ordinary and okayed the
Unit. After they left, the mural painting resumed, and after a time this
‘catatonic artist’ was able to return to living in society.
Appendix 10.
Case Study - The Canteen as Work Therapy
A case study synthesised from discussions with Neville (Dec,
1992, Aug 1998)
As an example of governance therapy
in action, a person who had been elected to work in the canteen wanted to
resign because some patients were asking him to break the rules and he could
not say ‘no’ (Yeomans, N. 1965a, Vol. 5, p. 34). At the same time
he would get very disturbed and angry. The consensus in the group discussion
about this was that it was very much in his interest to learn to say ‘no’
without becoming disturbed. It was in his interest to stay working in the
canteen and face this problem. He did stay on. He worked through this issue in
group discussions and in his canteen work experience till it was resolved.
In a similar vane, an embezzler was
knowingly elected to the Canteen Committee and, true to form, embezzled money.
His actions and their consequences for everyone provided a potent context for
change-work during both Big Group and Small Groups. Matters to do with the
canteen were a constant generator of extreme emotional passion in Big Group. It
was well known that this continual therapeutic struggle amongst canteen workers
was also the source of funding for the patients’ domiciliary and other outreach
work which patients and outpatients were committed to, and highly valued.
Appendix 11. A Copy of a Letter Drafted by Resident
Members of The Parliamentary Committee
The following letter was drafted by
resident members of the Parliamentary Committee as an aid to increasing
involvement by family and friends. Neville placed a copy in his collected
papers in the Mitchell Library (Yeomans, N. 1965a, Vol. 2, p. 11).
Fraser House
The Psychiatric
Centre
Cox Road
Dear
As your relative or
friend is now a patient at Fraser House, it is now our common purpose to do
what we can towards the restoration of full mental health.
We invite you to
come as often as you can to the groups, the function of which are to enable all
of us to find out the reasons why the breakdown has taken place, so that we can
all assist.
There are in the
hospital a number of committees, because it is believed that the patients and
their relatives and friends can do most towards solving each other’s problems.
Groups are held
at 9:30 A.M. each morning and at 6:30 P.M. each evening. Tuesday and Thursday groups are set aside for
parents and relatives of the patients and Friday morning for general business.
If you would like
a group from here to call on you to advise or help you in any way, to indicate
what Hospital Benefits or social services are available, to explain the groups
to you, or to be of any other assistance you have only to ask and a group of
patients will be at your service.
Will you please
write to me if there is anything we can do or any information we can give.
If you are in
distress about anything, would you ring Fraser House, phone 880 281 and ask the
charge nurse to give me your message.
The President
Patients’
Parliamentary Committee.
Notice that this
letter was sent by the patient who was the president of the peak committee.
Also note the inclusiveness of community therapy conveyed in the second
paragraph, and that support was readily available, ‘by a group of patients’.
They would come in their own red van
Appendix 12.
Notes on Fraser House in the Media
Notes synthesised from discussions with Neville (Aug 1998)
and archival research.
As one aspect of ensuring Fraser House’s continued existence, Neville was
constantly seeking and gaining media attention focused on Fraser Houses value
to the community. Neville placed a large collection of media clippings and
other Fraser House archival material in the Mitchell Library within the NSW
State Library (von Sommers 1960).