Ipswich Special Hospital (1964-1968)

The change of name from “Mental Hospital” to “Special Hospital” heralded the beginning of another era and the plans Basil Stafford had in mind many years earlier finally came to fruition.

The Backward Person’s Act of 1938 had stated that mental deficiency was to be treated separately from mental illness. Due to a lack of funds and suitable staff, this still hadn’t occurred.

What had been state of the art buildings in the early twentieth century were now somewhat out of date for current trends in treatment, and as only the most hopeless cases had been sent to Ipswich, there was an air of dejection and stagnation. Numbers of patients had fallen and many wards were closed. Treatment was still mainly custodial. They were society’s forgotten people.

Mr Pearce, an official visitor, stated in 1966 that, ”On my initial visit, I found an institution used mainly as a place for keeping certain people out of circulation. Remedial treatment and turnover were practically nil. Patients were eking out a 24 hour daily existence in impoverished conditions and some practically in squalor. Many requests for discharge were ignored & not worth recording. Paramedics were unknown. I could have been forgiven had I returned to the gate to see if I had missed a caption reading, “Abandon hope all ye who enter here”.¹

However by 1965, the decision had been taken to turn Ipswich into a centre for the adult intellectually disabled. Patients who were mentally ill were returned to Wolston Park and any intellectually disabled at Wolston Park were sent to Ipswich.

In 1968, the Hospital was renamed the Challinor Centre, in honour of Dr Henry Challinor, an Ipswich doctor who gave up his private practice to become the second superintendent of Goodna Mental Asylum in 1869.

There would be an opening up of the institution, with many paramedics and volunteers coming every day to help the residents slowly adjust into society. It would prove to be a challenging task, both for the residents and the staff.