The clinical psychiatry of late life in Britain from 1950 to 1970: an overview

Abstract

The psychiatry of old age in Britain can be traced back to the 1940s. Provision of services for mentally ill older people, however, did not become widespread until the 1970s. Survey of archive sources, published work, and oral history interviews relating to the development of services for mentally ill older people in Britain between 1950 and 1970. Despite considerable progress in research leading to a firm academic foundation for the specialty of old age psychiatry, there was relatively little progress made in the coordinated development of services from 1950 to 1970. A new generation of old age psychiatrists began to take service delivery issues forward at the very end of the 1960s and into the 1970s.