IDENTITY STATEMENT
Reference code(s): GB 0120 SA/MAC
Held at: Wellcome Library
Title: Mental After Care Association
Date(s): c1886-1994
Level of description: Collection (fonds)
Extent: 59 boxes, 1 outsize box, 5 folders, 1 outsize folder, 3 microfilms and 1 roll.
Name of creator(s): Mental After Care Association
CONTEXT
Administrative/Biographical history:
The Mental After Care Association (MACA) was founded in 1879 by Henry Hawkins, Chaplain of Colney Hatch Asylum, as The After Care Association for Poor and Friendless Female Convalescents on Leaving Asylums for the Insane. Its aims were to provide an alternative to the workhouse for those discharged from asylums by offering a period of convalescence in the homes of private individuals. The ex-patients were given advice, money, clothing, and assisted to find suitable work. The name changed in 1892 when "Friendless" was dropped from the title. In 1893 the Association opened its own home for ex-patients in Redhill, Surrey. It was the first convalescent home for the mentally ill in England and closed in 1895. The Association's name changed again in 1894 when "Female" was dropped from the title. In 1914 the Association became The Mental After Care Association for Poor Persons Convalescent or Recovered from Institutions for the Insane. During World War One (1914-1918) the Association helped shell shock and air raid victims. In the 1930s the Association moved into preventive care, and also provided holiday accommodation for those not ready to leave hospital on a permanent basis. The Association became MACA in 1940. It registered as a limited company in 1949. In the 1960s chronic patients were accommodated in homes administered by MACA. More recently MACA has participated in community and respite care projects. In 2005 MACA became Together: Working for Wellbeing.
CONTENT
Scope and content/abstract:
Papers of the Mental After Care Association (MACA), c 1886-1994, comprising the constitution and background, c 1886-1992; annual reports, 1887-1993; minutes, 1921-1982; financial records, c1880-1987; administrative records, 1891-c1990; records relating to homes and hostels administered by MACA, including property documents and registers of individual residential homes in the South of England, 1910-1992; case records, 1888-1986; publicity material, publications including Journal of Mental Science containing papers by Henry Hawkins, and ephemera including scrapbooks, c1880-1994; and photographs and audio-visual material, 1927-1989.
ACCESS AND USE
Language/scripts of material: English
System of arrangement:
As outlined in Scope and Content.
Conditions governing access:
Certain restrictions apply. Papers are available subject to the usual conditions of access to Archives and Manuscripts material, after the completion of a Reader's Undertaking. Some files are subject to Restricted Access for 84 years from the last date on the file. Readers may apply to consult this material by completing a Restricted Access application form.
Conditions governing reproduction:
Photocopies/photographs/microfilm are supplied for private research only at the Archivist's discretion. Please note that material may be unsuitable for copying on conservation grounds, and that photographs cannot be photocopied in any circumstances. Readers are restricted to 100 photocopies in twelve months. Researchers who wish to publish material must seek copyright permission from the copyright owner.
Physical characteristics:
1 outsize box, 5 folders, 1 outsize folder, 3 microfilms and 1 roll. The scrapbooks are too fragile to be produced and Readers are requested to order the microfilm version instead.
Finding aids:
ARCHIVAL INFORMATION
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling information:
Duplicate and ephemeral items have been weeded.
Accruals:
Archival history:
Immediate source of acquisition:
Records deposited in 1994, following a survey in 1987.
ALLIED MATERIALS
Existence and location of copies:
The scrapbooks are too fragile to be produced and are available on microfilm (AMS/MF/84-86).
Related material:
Jennifer Smith, 'Forging the 'missing link': the significance of the Mental After Care Association archive', History of Psychiatry vol 8, Sep 1997, pp 407-420.
DESCRIPTION NOTES
Archivist's note: Compiled by Anya Turner.
Date(s) of descriptions: June 2008