Broadmoor Psychiatric Hospital

The image below is of Broadmoor, a British mental asylum turned NHS mental hospital. It has housed some of the most terrifying and violent criminals from the Victorian era to today. Many people think it is a prison; however it is in fact a hospital for people who have committed crimes caused by a mental illness or people who are self harming as a result of mental illness etc. It is one of the most well-known mental hospitals in the UK, situated in Berkshire. It is now a male only institution and has been since 2007 when the female patients were sent to other hospitals. It's first inmates were admitted into the asylum in May 1863, shortly after the Criminal Lunatic Asylum Act was employed to decide whether or not the criminals were mentally stable or not at the time of the crime.

The security of the mental asylum was at first not as secure or strict as prisons and the treatment of the patients was surprisingly gently. When Broadmoor's doors first opened medication and brain surgery was not carried out, but instead the patients were given activities to help them recuperate and told to rest, which initially started to show positive results. However in 1952 serial killer John Straffen managed to escape the walls of the asylum to the surrounding neighbourhood by climbing onto a shed roof and over the 10 foot walls. He wore 'normal' clothes under his work outfit so that once he had jumped the walls he wouldn't be stopped. He came across a young child riding a bike round the neighbourhood and murdered her, reportedly within half an hour. His strange behaviour was noticed by a woman that he persuaded to give him a lift and so she told the police and he was captured and sent back to Broadmoor within minutes.

(Rennell, T., 2011.)

This horrifying escape alarmed the mental asylum because the security was obviously not high enough as one of their patients escaped, especially as it was so easy. The Ministry of Health put an alarm system in place that would go off if a patient managed to escape to not only alert the hospital's security, but also to warn people in the surrounding neighbourhood that a patient is on the loose. This alarm system is still in place today and it activated every Monday morning as a test to remind people the risks of living so close to a mental hospital such as Broadmoor.


Broadmoor - Inside Britain's Highest Security Psychiatric Hospital (Documentary)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X1QQD7MVehY - (PurpleChicken.TV., 2015.) 

All patients are watched on security cameras 24hrs everyday, which re-enforced the idea of putting a camera recording effect on the camera to make it look like the camera was CCTV; I was originally inspired to do this after watching Screwed by Nick Knight. Unlike a prison, patients are not given a release date in a mental hospital; instead it all depends on how well they react to treatment. Patients are moved to different levels of security depending on how they act, meaning they can be given more independence if they behave well and show signs of improvement. Some patients who have shown great improvement are allowed to work during some of the days where their artwork is sold to the public; they are paid 80p an hour. These patients are also allowed to go shopping once a week to a food shop within the premises; however this can become a problem as a side effect to some of the medication is an increased appetite, making a lot of the patients over weight. No cigarettes of alcohol is allowed within the Broadmoor walls, which is another reason many patients rely on food.

There were parts in the documentary where the patients refused to follow orders and the cameras were told to stop filming. This made me wonder just how badly they treated the patients and what methods they used to restrain them or force them to do something. In the highest security ward every move that the patients take is closely monitored and planned out to ensure the safety of all the people working there. Six employees have to be present to move high security patients incase the patient lashes out. An example was shown where a patient didn't want to go back inside his cell after his yard time so many employees had to be present to restrain him from attacking anyone, which he made attempts to do. After a dramatic situation like this happens the staff analyse it afterwards to figure out why it happened, what they could have done to stop it or prevent it and how they could have handled the situation better. It is estimated that there are five physical assaults on staff every week, which shocked me because they take such caution with every patient! Each meal the patients are given have to be carefully thought out because every patient could react differently, for example one patient could be handed their meal, whereas another may have to be passed it through a tiny window.

Another problem with patients in this mental hospital is self harm. Patients have to be frisk searched to check if they are carrying anything that they could use to harm other people or themselves. A patient was interviewed who had admitted to slitting his own neck and arm; these were both visible in the documentary. This patient also admitted to hanging himself in the cell and then having to be resuscitated by nurses. A man from security showed the views examples of items that had been confiscated from patients, which included sharpened plastic spoons and a distorted CD which looked like a blade. Watching this documentary made me realise about the danger of self harming, which inspired me to include it in my fashion film to show some of the less obvious dangers of having mental illness.

People working at Broadmoor are told not to tell people they work there because they will be bombarded with questions about life behind the Broadmoor walls and they are not allowed to disclose any information on any of the patients. They are advised, instead, to say they work for an NHS hospital. The hospital said they wouldn't disclose any personal information or physical appearance of any patients for safety reasons for their families and if they are ever released. All the staff have specialised training, so they are ready to tackle anything, for example, handling riots, forcing medication or confiscating dangerous equipment. Another form of security is 'relational security' which is when the staff know the patient so well that they can predict if they are going to behave badly or self harm.

The majority of the patients in Broadmoor were abused as children, both sexually and mentally, possibly adding to their mental health problems. Many of the patients were originally sentenced to prison, but they were moved to Broadmoor if they couldn't cope mentally, causing them to self harm, or were found to have mental health problems which the prison could not accommodate. Many patients were also homeless after spending much of their childhood in care homes because they either ran away from home or were abandoned by their parents. Drug abuse is another common factor amongst patients in Broadmoor so there is rehab theory available to get them to quit for good.

There are many differences between how Broadmoor is today then how it was in the Victorian era, with much more pleasant conditions and friendlier staff; however the patients are still watched 24hrs a day by staff, locked away for most of the day and force fed medication, so there are still some similar aspects. I want to combine the conditions and equipment used today on patients with the awful conditions patients were kept in over 100 years ago to show the viewers of my fashion film the horrendous life that mentally ill patients, living in mental asylums, have had to live.

References:

RENNELL, T., 2011. Revenge of the chocolate cream poisoner: Broadmoor archives go online, revealing the story of its most crazed inmate [viewed 23rd January 2017]. Available from: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2071876/Broadmoor-archives-online-revealing-story-crazed-inmate.html

PURPLECHICKEN.TV, 2015. Broadmoor - Inside Britain's Highest Security Psychiatric Hospital - The Documentery [viewed 23rd January 2017]. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X1QQD7MVehY

GUTSANDGORE, 2017. Broadmoor Hospital [viewed 23rd January 2017]. Available from:  http://www.gutsandgore.co.uk/infamous-asylums/broadmoor-hospital/