Starcross History Society: Starcross Hospital. What the voices tell us. Instalment 6.

The voices

Most importantly, the voices and words of one-time Starcross Hospital residents were recorded. Staff however, especially senior staff, were easier to engage and more forthcoming.

The interviews explored how people (staff and patients) came to be at the hospital, and the pros and cons of life there.

They are presented objectively, in the hope that they are an honest reflection of the realities of institutional life and the varied experience of transition.

The interview extracts gathered here cannot, of course, claim to be fully representative of the range of views held at the time.

There is far more material in the interviews than has been selectively reproduced here; what has been left out is no less important, but found no place in the format of this compilation.

The time-consuming work of recording and transcribing the interviews failed to continue for long enough to capture experiences of community care as it developed in later years, or to show how views may have changed over subsequent years.

Nor are there the voices of those who know community care now, but never experienced institutional living.

However, the project captured voices and words at an important milestone.

Limitations

It should be noted that:

At least one ex-resident who agreed to be interviewed found it hard to talk about the past because they found it so upsetting.

Some interviewees asked for certain comments not to be recorded and used; this has been respected.

As a result, some claims, for example about nursing practices or individual staff, are not reflected here – but neither were they reflected in other interviews and to that extent unsubstantiated.

The purpose of this collection of memories is not to judge but to bring together a variety of shared experiences. In the main, the picture painted by interviewees is consistent.

There were very few “outlier” comments made, even those off tape, and these were characterised by disaffection with the system, both previous and current.

Patient experiences are, sadly, not as well represented here as those of staff.

This is largely due to the logistical difficulties in arranging to meet with ex-residents across their new locations, and making the necessary introductory visits, as well as finding those who felt sufficiently confident and articulate to be tape-recorded, and who were deemed able to give informed consent.

Gathering ex-resident interviews was also made problematic because the years spent in institutional care had, in some cases, impacted on their ability to fully remember or describe their experiences.

It in part reflects that the more able patients had long since left care, and it was the less able or more institutionalised who had more recently moved to community care and could be contacted more readily.

Apologies to anyone, if any, who gave an interview at the time whose contribution has not been rediscovered to be quoted here or has not survived the intervening years.

The interviews – carried out from summer 1986 to 1988 – each lasted around two hours. Only a fraction of the material has been reproduced in this compilation of extracts.

Please see the Appendices to find out more about where the full transcripts can be found.

A portrait of the realities of life at Starcross

The next pages use extracts from the interviews, giving different perspectives on the realities of life at Starcross over several decades. Some of the memories stretch back more than 50 years prior to the closure.

Interview extracts are brought together to illustrate what life in the hospital was like and the views that people held. The memories are presented largely chronologically within each theme.

There are a number of themes that emerged from the interviews conducted for the oral archive project, and they echo David King’s identification of: institutionalisation with no way out.

To see more about each interviewee and what else they said, please see on to Part III, In Their Own Words, which describes the era and role in which they experienced life in Starcross as well as reproducing further extracts from each of the full transcripts. Again, their memories are presented as chronologically as possible.

Finally, in the Appendices, you can find information about other sources of information about Starcross Hospital.

Please note appendices will be published at a later date.

This completes Part I of the book, the next instalment will commence Part II.