Going up the line to Goodna

One hundred and fifty years of providing care to the mentally ill provides an opportunity to reflect on the lives, the work and the social forces involved in the mental health facility, now known as The Park – Centre for Mental Health. This book, which builds on previous projects to record the history of the hospital, highlights the ever present tension between the available resources, the vision of administrators and staff, and also the constantly changing factors that shaped the hospital. The processes discussed in this book allow readers to see recurring themes and signs of steady improvement, as well as the role of the hospital as a crucial part of the community’s safety net. As the book shows, developments within the social and health systems have radically changed and reshaped the work of the hospital over the past 150 years.