A pioneering doctor who championed more humane treatment of the mentally ill is recognised by a blue plaque on the site of Ealing Hospital.
Dr John Conolly was superintendent at the sprawling Middlesex County Asylum, Hanwell, which housed more than 800 ‘pauper lunatics’ and is one of only seven local people which include tennis champion Fred Perry and Sir Michael Balcon who led Ealing Film Studios getting a blue plaque.
Conolly noted on his appointment in 1839 that many of its more unruly inmates were kept in a variety of shackles and restraints.
He recognised existing drug treatments were often ineffective and dangerous using substances including antimony, digitalis and strychnine.
The use of leeches, regularly purging the bowels with enemas and a spinning chair to ‘bring patients to their senses’ were also employed although Conolly dryly noted that ‘medical men are not much disposed to make trial of in their own persons.’
He knew many conditions were beyond treatment and sought a more compassionate approach which was reinforced when he visited a privately-run asylum in Lincoln.
Here, he found a fellow doctor who managed 150 patients with no need for ‘mechanical restraints’ and subsequently ordered the removal of ‘all instruments of restraint,’ increased the ratio of keepers to patients as well as increasing their wages.
Conolly noted that “the wards are less noisy, frantic behaviour and manic paroxysms are less frequent, and patients are more cheerful and cleaner.”
Additional measures included warm bathes before bed to calm distressed patients and the provision of five giant rocking horses which several patients could sit astride.
Conolly’s reforms also included better lit and ventilated wards, adequate clothing and food, the employment of ‘work masters’ to teach patients various trades, leisure activities and drawing classes.
Today, the site is occupied by Ealing Hospital and present-day mental health services offered by West London NHS Trust.
