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Lives in the Asylum Record, 1864 to 1910: Utilising Large Data Collection for Histories of Psychiatry and Mental Health

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Published in:Medical History vol. 61, no. 3 (Jul 2017), p. 358-379
Main Author: McCarthy, Angela
Other Authors: Coleborne, Catharine, O'Connor, Maree, Knewstubb, Elspeth
Published:
Cambridge University Press
Subjects:
Research
Longevity
Mental health
Psychiatry
Historical account
Interrogation
Mental health care
Patients
Mental disorders
Ethnicity
Categories
Historians
Data processing
Data analysis
Institutions
Migration
Linkage analysis
Society
Ethics
Data collection
Archives & records
Conversation
Confinement
History
Hospitals
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Abstract:This article examines the research implications and uses of data for a large project investigating institutional confinement in Australia and New Zealand. The cases of patients admitted between 1864 and 1910 at four separate institutions, three public and one private, provided more than 4000 patient records to a collaborative team of researchers. The utility and longevity of this data and the ways to continue to understand its significance and contents form the basis of this article's interrogation of data collection and methodological issues surrounding the history of psychiatry and mental health. It examines the themes of ethics and access, record linkage, categories of data analysis, comparison and record keeping across colonial and imperial institutions, and constraints and opportunities in the data itself. The aim of this article is to continue an ongoing conversation among historians of mental health about the role and value of data collection for mental health and to signal the relevance of international multi-sited collaborative research in this field.
ISSN:0025-7273
2048-8343
DOI:10.1017/mdh.2017.33
Source:Healthcare Administration Database