Article ID: CBB000933083

A Family Point of View: Negotiating Asylum Care in Alberta, 1905--1930 (2008)

unapi

This paper analyzes the meaning of mental illness and institutional care from a family point of view, using family correspondence and police reports about asylum admission of family members in Alberta at the beginning of the 20th century. Portraying the asylum as a place of negotiation, the analysis reveals that despite families' lack of authority over asylum admission, they nevertheless were active participants in structuring this new form of public care once it became available in Alberta. Families negotiated and contested existing medical and legal norms that structured asylum care in order to meet their own needs and demands. Categories of age, class, gender, race, and region intersected in shaping the family experience of mental illness. The paper concludes that families expected a newly built institution to provide relief of their social problems, which was at odds with the legal and medical norms regarding asylum admission.

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Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB000933083/

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Authors & Contributors
Coleborne, Catharine
Baur, Nicole
Thabane, Motlatsi
Juliette Rigondet
Malacrida, Claudia
Wilbraham, Lindy
Concepts
Psychiatric hospitals
Mental disorders and diseases
Psychiatry
Public health
Family
Patients
Time Periods
20th century, early
19th century
20th century
18th century
Places
Alberta, Canada
England
Australia
Québec (Canada)
New Zealand
Canada
Institutions
Toronto Hospital for the Insane
National Health Service (Great Britain)
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