This article explores from an historical perspective the emerging debates on the similarities and differences between community care and institutional care. While institutional care has been widely condemned, community care has been welcomed as offering greater opportunities for adults who have long term care needs. We argue, however, that it is more helpful to regard institutional and community care as a continuum, and draw on our ongoing research into the history of community care for people with learning difficulties to show that community care has a longer history than has been widely assumed, and that some forms of community care were as much motivated by a desire to control as they were by a wish to provide care. The article ends with some consideration of the relevance of such historical studies for modern understandings of community care.
Abbot P and Wallace, C. (eds) (1990) A Sociology of the Caring Professions. London: Falmer Press.
2.
Aloisio, F. (1995) Grace Eyre Foundation: The Founder and the Foundation. Brighton: Grace Eyre Foundation.
3.
Atkinson, D. (1997a) An Auto/Biographical Approach to Learning Disability Research. Ashgate: Avebury.
4.
Atkinson, D. (1997b) ‘Learning from Local history: Evidence from Somerset’, in Atkinson, D., Jackson, M. and Walmsley, J. (eds) Forgotten Lives: Exploring the History of Learning Disability. Kidderminster: British Institute of Learning Disabilities.
5.
Atkinson, D., Jackson, M. and Walmsley, J. (eds) (1997) Forgotten Lives: Exploring the History of Learning Disability. Kidderminster: British Institute of Learning Disabilities.
6.
Barker, D. (1983) ‘How to Curb the Fertility of the Unfit’, Oxford Review of Education9(3) 197–211.
7.
Barron, D. (1996) A Price to be Born. Harrogate: Mencap, Northern Division.
8.
Bartlett, P. and Wright, D. (eds) (1999) Outside the Walls of the Asylum. London: Athlone.
9.
Bedfordshire Mental Deficiency Committee (1914–1940) Mental Deficiency Papers Volumes 1 to 40. (The records are kept in the Bedfordshire County Record Office.)
10.
Beyer, S. (1995) ‘Real Jobs and Supported Employment’, in T. Philpot and L. Ward (eds) Values and Visions: Changing Ideas in Services for People with Learning Difficulties. London: Butterworth Heinemann.
11.
Board of Control (1937) Circular 835. London: Board of Control.
12.
Brindle, D. (1998) ‘£1bn to End Care in the Community’, Guardian, 25 July, p. 1-1.
13.
Brown, H. and Smith, H. (eds) (1992) Normalisation: A Reader for the Nineties. London: Routledge.
14.
Bulmer, M. (1987) The Social Basis of Community Care. London: Allen and Unwin.
15.
Cochrane, A. and Muncie, J. (1993) Politics, Policy and the Law. Milton Keynes: Open University.
16.
Cooper, M. (1997) ‘Mabel Cooper's Life Story’, in D. Atkinson, M. Jackson and J. Walmsley (eds) Forgotten Lives: Exploring the History of Learning Disability. Kidderminster: British Institute of Learning Difficulties.
17.
Darwin, R. (1926) ‘The Proper Care of Defectives Outside Institutions’, Paper presented at the 1926 Conference on Mental Welfare, Taunton, Somerset quoted in D. Atkinson ‘Learning from Local history: Evidence from Somerset’ in D. Atkinson, M. Jackson and J. Walmsley (eds) Forgotten Lives: Exploring the History of Learning Disability. Kidderminster: British Institute of Learning Difficulties.
18.
Davies, C. (1988) ‘The Health Visitor as Mother's Friend: a Woman's Place in Public Health 1900–1914’, Social History of Medicine1(1): 39–59.
19.
Department of Health (1989) Caring for People. London: HMSO.
20.
Department of Health and Social Security (1971) Better Services for the Mentally Handicapped. London: HMSO.
21.
Digby, A. (1989) British Welfare Policy: Workhouse to Workforce. London: Faber and Faber.
22.
Edgerton, R. (1967) The Cloak of Competence. Berkeley: University of California Press.
23.
Edgerton, R. and Bercovici, S. (1976) ‘The Cloak of Competence: Years Later’, American Journal of Mental Retardation80: 485–497.
24.
Edgerton, R., Bollinger, M. and Herr, B. (1984) ‘The Cloak of Competence: After Two Decades’, American Journal of Mental Retardation88: 345–351.
25.
Felce, D., Grant, G., Ramcharan, P., Beyer, S., McGrath, M., Perry, J., Shearn, J., Kilsby, M. and Lowe, K. (1998) Towards a Full Life: Researching Policy Innovation for People with Learning Difficulties. London: Butterworth Heinemann.
26.
Fennell, P. (1996) Treatment Without Consent: Law, Psychiatry and the Treatment of Mentally Disordered People Since 1845. London: Routledge.
27.
Fox, E. (1930) ‘Community Schemes for the Social Control of Mental Defectives’, Mental Welfarexi(3): 71-71.
28.
French, C. (1971) A History of the Development of the Mental Health Services in Bedfordshire. Bedford: Bedfordshire County Council.
29.
Gladstone, D. (1996) ‘The Changing Dynamic of Institutional Care: the Western Counties Idiot Asylum, 1864–1914’, in A. Digby and D. Wright (eds) From Idiocy to Mental Deficiency: Historical Perspectives on People with Learning Difficulties. London: Routledge.
30.
Goffman, E. (1961) Asylums: Essays on the Social Situations of Mental Patients and Other Inmates. Harmondsworth: Penguin.
31.
Graham, H. (1983) ‘Caring: a Labour of Love’, in J. Finch and D. Groves (eds) A Labour of Love: Women, Work and Caring. London: Routledge.
32.
Jones, G. (1986) Social Hygiene in Twentieth Century Britain. London: Croom Helm.
33.
Jones, K. (1972) A History of the Mental Health Services. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
34.
Jones, K. (1975) Opening the Door. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
35.
Lewis, J. (1994) ‘Choice, Need and Rnabling: the New Community Care’, in A. Oakley and A.S. Williams (eds) The Politics of the Welfare State. London: UCL Press.
36.
Lewis, J. (1995a) ‘Family Provision of Health and Welfare in the Mixed Economy of Care in the Late Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries’, Social History of Medicine8(1): 1–16.
37.
Lewis, J. (1995b) The Voluntary Sector, the State and Social Work in Britain: the Charity Organisation Society. London: Edward Elgar.
38.
Marais, M. (1976) Lives Worth Living: the Right of all the Handicapped. London: Souvenir Press.
39.
McNicol, J. (1987) ‘In Pursuit of the Underclass’, Journal of Social Policy16(3): 293–318.
40.
Means, R. and Smith, R. (1994) Community Care: Policy and Practice. London: Macmillan.
41.
Melling, J., Adair, R. and Forsythe, B. (1997) ‘ “A Proper Lunatic for Two Years”: Pauper Lunatic Children in Victorian and Edwardian England, Child Admissions to the Devon County Asylum 1845–1914’, Journal of Social HistoryWinter: 370–405.
42.
Miller, E. J. and Gwynne, G. V. (1972) A Life Apart: A Pilot Study of Residential Institutions for the Physically Handicapped and the Young Chronic Sick. London: Tavistock Publications.
43.
Morris, P. (1969) Put Away. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
44.
National Development Team (1992) Survey of Supported Employment Services in England, Scotland and Wales. Manchester: NDT.
45.
Nirje, B. (1969) ‘The Normalisation Principle and its Human Management Implications’, in R.B. Kugel and W. Wolfensberger (eds) Changing Patterns in Residential Services for the Mentally Retarded. Washington DC: Presidential Committee on Mental Retardation.
46.
Pascall, G. (1986) Social Policy: A Feminist Analysis. London: Routledge.
47.
Potts, M. and Fido, R. (1991) A Fit Person to be Removed. Plymouth: Northcote House.
48.
Ritchie, J., Dick, D. and Lingham, R. (1994) The Report of the Inquiry into the Care and Treatment of Christopher Clunis. London: HMSO.
49.
Rolph, S. (1998) ‘Ethical Dilemmas: Oral History Work with People With Learning Difficulties’, Oral History26(2): 65–72.
50.
Rolph, S. (1999) ‘Enforced Migrations by People With Learning Disabilities: a Case Study’, Oral History27(1): 47–56.
51.
Rolph, S. (2000) The History of Community Care for People With Learning Difficulties in Norfolk, PhD research in progress. Milton Keynes: Open University.
52.
Royal College of Psychiatrists (1996) Report of the Confidentiality Inquiry into Homicides and Suicides by Mentally Ill People(Boyd Report) Royal College of Psychiatrists for the Confidentiality Inquiry into Homicides and Suicides by Mentally Ill People.
53.
Shakespeare, T. (1998) ‘Choices and Rights: eugenics, Genetics and Disability Equality’, Disability and Society13(5): 665–683.
54.
Shrubsall, F. C. and Williams, A. C. (1932) Mental Deficiency Practice. London: University of London Press.
55.
Simmons, H. (1978) ‘Explaining Social Policy: the English Mental Deficiency Act of 1913’, Journal of Social History11: 387–403.
Stainton, T. (1992) ‘A Terrible Danger to the Race’, Community Living January: 18–19.
58.
Stanworth, M. (1989) ‘The New Eugenics’, in A. Brechin and J. Walmsley (eds) Making Connections. London: Hodder and Stoughton.
59.
Stevens, A. (1997) ‘Recording the History of an Institution: the Royal Eastern Counties Institution at Colchester’, in D. Atkinson, M. Jackson and J. Walmsley (eds) Forgotten Lives: Exploring the History Of Learning Disability. Kidderminster: British Institute of Learning Difficulties.
60.
Symonds, A. (1998) ‘The Social Construction of Public Care: From Community Care to Care by the State’, in A. Symonds and A. Kelly (eds) The Social Construction of Community Care. London: MacMillan.
61.
Thomson, M. (1996) ‘Family, Community and State: the Micro Politics of Mental Deficiency’, in A. Digby and D. Wright (eds) From Idiocy to Mental Deficiency: Historical Perspectives on People with Learning Difficulties. London: Routledge.
62.
Thomson, M. (1998) The Problem of Mental Deficiency in England and Wales 1913–1946. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
63.
Townsend, P. (1962) The Last Refuge: A Survey of Residential Institutions and Homes for the Aged in England and Wales. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
64.
Tredgold, A. F. (1947) A Text Book of Mental Deficiency (amentia), 7th edn.London: Bailliere Tindall.
65.
Trent, J. (1994) Inventing the Feeble Mind: A History of Mental Retardation in the United States. Berkeley: University of California Press.
66.
Walmsley, J. (1995) ‘Life History Interviews with People with Learning Disabilities’Oral History23(1): 71–77.
67.
Walmsley, J. (2000) ‘Straddling Boundaries: Changing Roles for the Voluntary Sector 1913–1959’, in L. Brigham, D. Atkinson, M. Jackson, S. Rolph and J. Walmsley (eds) Crossing Boundaries. Kidderminster: British Institute of Learning Disabilities.
68.
Walmsley, J. and Atkinson, D. (1999) ‘Oral History and the History of Learning Disability’, in J. Bornat, R. Perks, P. Thompson and J. Walmsley (eds) Oral History, Health and Welfare. London: Routledge.
69.
Walmsley, J., Rolph, S. and Atkinson, D. (1999) ‘Community Care and Mental Deficiency 1913–1945’, in P. Bartlett and D. Wright (eds) Outside the Walls of the Asylum. London: Athlone Press.
70.
Welfare Reform Group Green Paper Consultation Team (1998) New Ambitions for our Country: a New Contract for Welfare(Consultation Document) London: Department of Social Security (DSS).
71.
Wolfensberger, W. (1972) The Principle of Normalisation in Human Services. Toronto: National Institute on Mental Retardation.
72.
Wood Report (1929) Report of the Mental Deficiency Committee Part 3: The Adult Defective. London: HMSO.
73.
Wright, D. (1993) The National Asylum for Idiots, Earlswood. Unpublished PhD thesis, University of Oxford.
74.
Wright, D. (1997) ‘Getting out of the Asylum: Understanding the Confinement of the Insane in the Nineteenth Century’, Social History of Medicine10(1): 137–155.
