Building a mental hospital in apartheid South Africa.

Abstract

In April 1962, a new mental hospital was inaugurated in Belville, a town near Cape Town, South Africa. Stikland Mental Hospital was planned as mental health care was changing with the introduction of psychotropic drugs and renewed debates about deinstitutionalization-and as the South African legislature formalized the system known as "apartheid." This article focuses on this hospital, which embodied many global ideas about treatment and management of the mentally ill but which also incorporated the local politics of strict racial segregation. It had been planned in response to overcrowded mental hospitals in the 1950s, but by the time it opened, new forms of treatment had produced a surplus of beds for White patients. Architecturally, the hospital was conceived with the general principles of the villa plan in mind, although utilitarian aspects, such as patient and staff numbers, gardens, and budgets, dominated the design of the buildings. The public relations exercises undertaken highlight the negotiations involved in building a mental hospital in 1960s South Africa, but the example of Stikland also showcases new plans for research and training in mental health professions in the 1960s and 1970s. Disciplines such as clinical psychology benefited from the professional training opportunities provided. Overall, Stikland Mental Hospital therefore provides an important perspective on deinstitutionalization outside its familiar settings and historical accounts. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).