Mental Nurses Training Manual

Book excerpt: Back at the end of the 1970s, three hundred copies of Neglect & Violence – Mental Nurse’s Training Manual were released by Wombat Printing NL to friends and the nurse’s underground. Forty plus years later it is now released to the public with little danger of litigation regarding libel or defamation. The back-cover blurb for MENTAL NURSES TRAINING MANUAL then had it that: ‘An ex-psychiatric nurse recalls his experiences after reporting a bashing and drinking on duty to his superiors. He exposes a cover-up by the hospital authorities and the State government bureaucracy then known as the Mental Health Authority. His report details murder and suicide cases and hints at widespread cruelty and indifference. His memories and impressions of the people he met working at a Melbourne mental hospital adds colour to a subject which bears thinking about. The author’s futile exploits as a candidate in the 1973 Victorian state election makes amusing and / or alarming reading, while his analysis of shortcomings in psychiatric practice might stimulate a new deal for the bewildered victims of our dog-eat-dog civilization…” “A must for all the up and coming maniacs.” – Gough Whitelamb in the Daylesford Gazette. “Lifts the lid off the sanity business.” – Clyde Pucker in the Yea Times. “Reading this book didn’t relieve my obsessive-compulsive-neurosis or my ethical dilemmas, but it gave me the pleasant feeling that I am not alone in this world with my belief in the prefectability of mankind through the exercise of hope fertilized by integrity.” – Malcolm Howard in the West Wyalong Whinger. “Whistle-blowing anti-psychiatry still resonates today.” Phil Saddams in the Rupert Warduck Stable