Such Tender Years: The Admission and Treatment of Youngsters Aged 14 and Under, with Learning Difficulties Or Mental Illness to the Three Asylums in Leicestershire, Between 1836 to 1912 by Diane Lockley soon to be presented for sale on the lustrous BookLovers of Bath web site!
Published: Harbourne: Anchorprint Group, 2013, Paperback.
Contains: Black & white photographs; Black & white drawings; Maps; Tables; Glossary;
From the cover: The author is a retired teacher of children with learning difficulties, whose cognitive abilities would have been quite comparable to many of the young asylum admissions related to within this publication.
On wishing to research the mentally disadvantaged youngsters of many years ago, she uncovered various still extant, medical lunatic asylum records for three previous, Leicestershire asylums, at the Record Office for the Leicestershire, Leicester and Rutland, which covered their treatment whilst they were patients from 1845 to 1912.
Within stacks of ancient documents, there were the extensive treatment records of over a hundred youngsters, all aged 14 and under at the time of admission. The majority had learning difficulties but a small percentage had become mentally ill in their youth. The youngest Joseph was just three years old. Amongst many hundreds of adult patients they were very much minors in the minority.
Many of these young patients were potentially given richer life experiences than those that were available to their peers on the other side of the walls.
Twenty-four hour care is an exhausting situation for the carers within any period of history. This research also highlights how much support families of children with similar disabilities may need in the current age.
Near Fine.
131 pages. 8¼” x 6″.
Of course, if you don’t like this one, may I fascinate you with a carefully selected medley featured in my Psychology & Psychiatry catalogue?
BookLovers of Bath 