Staff stories from the 1980s

Allan Mayer

I want to talk about the experiences of staff during the 1980s who were assisting people in moving from large hospitals, back into the community.

I was involved in this work, and found the people and happenings of that time left such an impression that I wrote a novel about it called Tasting the Wind from which I will be reading parts to illustrate stories about staff from the mid 1980s.

The closure of the hospitals meant that a large number of staff were needed to help people in their new homes. Some had experience of working with people with learning disabilities. Others, like myself, did not.

One of our first jobs was to make offers to people to leave hospital and return to their community. This was not always successful, as evidenced by this first extract from Tasting the Wind, which is based on a true story.

Extract 1: Jamie offers Oscar a place at the Bungalow

One of my strongest memories as a new member of staff working in a long stay hospital was being taken to the wards for the first time. I remember feeling uneasy and nervousness, but it was not to do with the people to whom the hospital was home, but with the ways in which the institution made them live, treated them as second class and imposed systems which ignored their individuality. This second extract is based upon my own experience.

Extract 2: Martin encounters a ward

Tasting the Wind is dedicated to an inspirational Senior Residential Social Worker called David Heffer, and David appears in the book as 'Jamie'. Sadly, David Heffer was killed by the IRA in the Covent Garden pub bombing. David was always straight talking and would never allow poor practice to go unchallenged.

Extract 3: Teabreak apartheid

I use the word 'apartheid' here, because at a time when the world was condemning countries which kept black and white people apart we were, in this country, allowing people with learning disabilities in hospitals to be treated as somehow different to the rest of us. This is not meant as a blanket criticism of hospital staff - I met many who were caring and dedicated and did everything they could within the limits of a system which was totally inappropriate.

What we had to realise as staff was that we were part of a very important period of historical change. We were not just physically moving people from one location to another - we were also instrumental in asking society to change its way of thinking.

My final extract takes place immediately after the people have moved from the hospital into their new bungalow, and the staff who are off duty have retreated to the pub. Those of you who are old enough may remember a trend for London pubs in the 1980s to have bizarre names, so this piece is called:

Extract 4: Them and us at the Bat and Lobster