Thread by @rcpsych

Hope everyone had a good lunch! Now we look at the lessons we can learn from the 'asylum era', chaired by @DianeGoslar, an expert by experience. We'll also hear from @PeterNaxos, @claire_hilton6 and Dr Allan Beveridge. #RCPsychIC

@DianeGoslar @PeterNaxos @claire_hilton6 Change is desperately needed – such as the total dismantling of stigma – but we have evidence change can happen, says @DianeGoslar. One example of change is that Diane, a patient, is chairing this session. #RCPsychIC

@DianeGoslar @PeterNaxos @claire_hilton6 The first story comes from @PeterNaxos, who speaks of Henrietta, a patient in Kingston Asylum, in 1859. She found within herself a resolve she was never aware of, which enabled her to survive a situation which was totally at odds with anything she'd experienced before. #RCPsychIC

@DianeGoslar @PeterNaxos @claire_hilton6 "There is a very contemporary resonance in a mixed race women examining a situation with entrenched positions of power" @peternaxos suggests that the overall message is never to write-off or underestimate the strengths of patients, even in the midst of their suffering. #RCPsychIC

@DianeGoslar @PeterNaxos @claire_hilton6 There's a lot that may strike us today both as rather distant as well as being disturbingly present about Henrietta's story. She was a remarkable woman 'telling the truth from below'. #RCPsychIC

@DianeGoslar @PeterNaxos @claire_hilton6 Now we have Dr Allan Beveridge talking about the Royal Edinburgh Asylum. Unlike English asylums, Scottish asylums had private and pauper patients in the same building. #RCPsychIC

@DianeGoslar @PeterNaxos @claire_hilton6 Clouston's regime aimed to 'bring order to the disordered mind' - in his view, insanity represented a 'loss of control', explains Dr Beveridge at #RCPsychIC

@DianeGoslar @PeterNaxos @claire_hilton6 Patients would write a great deal, for many reasons (listed below). They'd wrote on whatever was available, even on toilet paper if that was all that was available. #RCPsychIC

@DianeGoslar @PeterNaxos @claire_hilton6 Many patients felt they were misinformed about their admittance to the Asylum. Tricked, lied to - some were physically manhandled, explains Dr Beveridge at #RCPsychIC

@DianeGoslar @PeterNaxos @claire_hilton6 Some of the insight from the patients included below. Some reference Clouston's 'gospel of fatness', the belief that overfeeding patients would help them. #RCPsychIC

@DianeGoslar @PeterNaxos @claire_hilton6 Other patients would appeal to friends and loved ones to help get them out - some powerful stuff in the comments below. #RCPsychIC

@DianeGoslar @PeterNaxos @claire_hilton6 Apologies for the technical issues that meant we missed @claire_hilton6's talk! We're now talking about the present day – how much do investigations really reflect the needs/wellbeing of patients? They've been criticised for only investigating what they want to. #RCPsychIC