In our busy and sometimes stressful lives, it is good to reflect on times past and the experience of those people who filled our shoes more than a century ago.
This extract from The Passing Hour (Vol XIII, No 4), the magazine of the former Stirling District Asylum (S.D.A., the site now occupied by Bellsdyke Hospital), dating back to Winter 1913 highlights some of the pressures and challenges faced by our former colleagues, some of which may be familiar to staff working in today’s health and care services:
“This has been a heavy year for Stirling District Asylum. The unusual increase in the admission rate has filled the wards to overflowing, augmenting the work and responsibility in every part of the house [service], from the highest to the lowest official, and increasing the strain which is the inevitable accompaniment of work in a mental [as described in 1913] hospital.”
“Each one of us here, units in the working community of S.D.A., have one single purpose to keep in view while fulfilling our individual obligations, and that is the making of this S.D.A. of ours a House of Healing of the very highest perfection and efficiency, and that is to be done by every unit realising his or her importance in the scheme, and doing the particular work assigned to the fullest and best capacity. All are not equally responsible, but all are equally necessary, and therefore important… We may not all be equally gifted, but we can all do our best, and in doing our best we are in the way of making that best better.”
The sentiment behind this piece chimes perfectly with work being taken forward across local health and care services to take forward changes and improvements with care and compassion recognising that “we can all do our best, and in doing our best we are in the way of making that best better.”
