Mental Health as History: Psychiatry, Community, and General Practice

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

Mid-twentieth century psychiatry was marked by a movement away from the institutional management of mental illness. Developments in psychotropic medication and the therapeutic communities approach changed treatment possibilities, and the discipline of community psychiatry revised the management of mental health. These factors shaped an early Australian example of a community-focused regional mental health service on the Central Coast, north of Sydney, New South Wales. It was instigated in 1969 by a psychiatrist (Donald Scott-Orr) and centred on the involvement of primary health care providers: on general practitioners and community mental health nurses. Drawing upon oral histories, this article provides important insight into how the shift away from institutional treatment and care for people with mental illness took place, and the underlying social changes this shift was part of.