Improving Psychiatric Care for Older People

Explores the influence of AEGIS as a pressure group in improving care for older people in psychiatric hospitals, unlike other histories that attribute these improvements to the governmentOffers a much-needed account of the experiences of older women, and other vulnerable people, on psychiatric wards Highlights the ongoing relevance of AEGIS's campaign today and how this history can inform current debate on chronic care for older people

Claire Hilton has been a National Health Service psychiatrist in London, UK, for 18 years. Her research has ranged from mental health of young people with sickle cell disease in Jamaica to clinical and historical aspects of old age psychiatry with a particular interest in the interface between history, policy and practice.

1. Introduction: A strange eventful history.- 2. Psychiatric hospitals and older people: status quo or making changes?.- 3. Barbara Robb, Amy Gibbs and the 'Diary of a Nobody'.- 4. Establishing AEGIS and writing Sans Everything : 'the case' and 'some answers'.- 5. Reprinted before publication: plotting a route for Sans Everything.- 6. The inquiries: a lion's den.- 7. Whitewash and after: 'Most good is done by stealth'.- 8. Then and now: concluding remarks.