This ‘Mindfulness Month NZ’, let’s acknowledge the past and look towards the future, and bettering mental health resources.
In 1889, Seacliff Lunatic Asylum in Dunedin NZ housed 490 patients (302 male, 188 females). In 1889, Truby King was appointed medical superintendent at Seacliff and remained there for 30 years. He also lectured at the University of Otago in mental diseases. He considered mental illness to be a matter of preventable “brain disease” brought on by unfavourable conditions: poor diet, a lax upbringing, over-study, and a want of self-control in general. He was not especially interested in psychoanalytic treatments or drugs, such as potassium bromide, chloral hydrate or opium.
His treatment of Seacliff patients was considered laudable; he held holistic views and considered the best treatments for mental illness to be fresh air, exercise, a good diet, work, and recreation. He was an avid gardener and allowed patients access to the sprawling grounds. While at Seacliff, he developed successful farming and fishing operations. He said, “In plants, just as in the case of animals, the inroads of disease are best prevented by keeping the organism well nourished”.
On the 8th of December 1942, a fire broke out in ward 5: a two-storied wooden building that extended from the original stone building at Seacliff. 39 female patients were in the ward, all locked in either single rooms or the 20-bed dormitory. Most of the windows were locked and a key was required to open them. There was a shortage of nursing staff due to World War II duties; no-one was on duty in ward 5 at night and staff from other wards made checks every hour. The hospital’s firefighters tried to put out the fire, but it was too fierce. Within one hour, only ashes remained of ward 5 and 37 women had died of suffocation.
Today, little remains of Seacliff Lunatic Asylum which closed in 1973; after which the buildings and grounds were abandoned. A handful of buildings remain and these are privately owned and inaccessible. In 1992, the last remaining building on the Truby King Recreation Reserve was demolished.
Stayed tuned to learn more about an exceptional woman who was a patient at Seacliff Lunatic Asylum.
Photo: The Dictionary of New Zealand Biography Volume Two (1870-1900).