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Illness and recovery
Our ideas about mental health, illness, care and recovery have changed considerably since the first days of the asylum in 1869. When it was built, the asylum was part of a large system of public institutions put in place to manage those who were ill (hospitals), destitute (workhouses) or involved in criminal activities (the gaol). Those with enough money, and without criminal convictions, would be cared for in private institutions, or at home.
While some patients spent a short time within the hospital walls, others remained within the system of institutional care throughout their lives.
The changes at St. Davnet’s throughout the twentieth and twenty-first centuries reflect changes in how we view and treat mental health and illness in society.
In 1945 categories of patient were defined as: voluntary patients, temporary patients and persons of unsound mind. It was the first time that patients could be voluntary and was a significant change in thinking about those with mental health needs.
From moral management, work as therapy, drug treatments to care in community settings, the hospital at Monaghan reflected changes in national health policy and international ideas on how best to care for and treat those suffering from mental ill health.
Some of the terms used to describe patients, such as Lunatics seem insulting and cruel today, but must be understood in the context of their own time. This language was used even in official government documents of the period for example the Dangerous Lunatics Act, or the Inspector of Lunacy. These words began to change in the late 1940s with The Mental Treatment Act 1945. Today service user is used to describe someone who accesses mental health services.
The first patients who moved to the asylum from Armagh, were described as suffering from mania, melancholia, dementia and imbecility. According to medical historians, mania and melancholia probably refer to what we now think of as mania and depression. Dementia may refer to more severe illness, and was related to schizophrenia. Idiocy and imbecility were terms associated with intellectual disability.
The ‘causes of insanity’ listed for the first patients at the asylum also give us an insight into their lives. Two women were suffering from mania due to poverty and overwork. Other causes listed included poverty and reversal of fortunes, seduction, religious excitement, jealousy, excessive tea drinking and intemperance.
Mental Health and Language
The words we use to talk about mental health reveal a great deal
about our attitudes and beliefs.
The changing name of the institution itself reflects these changes
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Cavan and Monaghan District Lunatic Asylum (1869-1924)
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Monaghan Mental Hospital (1924-1954)
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St. Davnet’s Hospital (1954- c.2000s)
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St. Davnet’s Campus (c.2013-present)
Commital Form for a Dangerous Lunatic or Dangerous Idiot, 1945, from St. Davnet's archives
© 2014 The Health Service Excutive
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