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- Title
The Shawcross Affair: Sex, Politics, and Madness in Western Australia, 1937-39.
- Authors
Martyr, Philippa
- Abstract
In 1938, a Royal Commission in Perth began hearing evidence into the running of Heathcote Reception Home in Western Australia and its matron, Mildred Vernon Shawcross. Shawcross was accused of--among other things--undermining medical authority, being a drug addict, and having an illicit relationship with William Kitson, who as Western Australia's chief secretary was directly responsible for mental health services at ministerial level. The investigation reveals a number of fault-lines in the history of mental health care in Australia: the dynamic and hazardous relationship between medical and nursing authority; the conflict between general nursing and mental health nursing; and the role of personal relationships in governmental decision-making in small communities.
- Subjects
MENTAL health services; PSYCHIATRIC nursing; HUMAN sexuality &; politics; DECISION making; FORNICATION; PSYCHIATRIC hospitals
- Publication
Health & History: Journal of the Australian & New Zealand Society for the History of Medicine, 2018, Vol 20, Issue 1, p52
- ISSN
1442-1771
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.5401/healthhist.20.1.0052