44 min

Episode 6: Learning Disability Past Caring

    • History

Episode 6 delves more deeply into the themes from our exhibition, "A History of Care or Control?" on the history of learning disability nursing.

Content warning: This episode contains a number of terms from learning disability history that are offensive today, especially in the interview with Simon who discusses them as an important part of understanding the history and attitudes towards disabled people.

First, hear from writer and performer Emily Curtis and her sister Sophie Potter, who has Down's Syndrome. Emily recently performed her play "Sophie", at the RCN, which explores the sisters' shared experiences growing up together in Hull, including the stigma and the joy Down's Syndrome brought to their lives.

Next, historian Dr Simon Jarrett tells us about the often surprising history of learning disability, including how it was understood in the eighteenth century and what the phrase "to live in the community" really means. Simon's book, "Those They Called Idiots" was published by Reaktion in 2020.

Finally, retired learning disability nurse Professor Bob Gates tells us about his oral history project collecting the untold stories of nurses who had spent decades working with people with learning disabilities in the large residential hospitals of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

The Past Caring podcast is produced by Natalie Steed and presented by Frances Reed.

Here are some links for more info:

View "A History of Care or Control?" online here: https://www.rcn.org.uk/library-exhibitions/Learning-disability-2020

Visit the exhibition at the RCN Library and Heritage Centre until March 2023: https://www.rcn.org.uk/library/About-us/Library-and-Heritage-Centre

Sophie is a Mencap Myth Buster: https://www.mencap.org.uk/mythbusters/sophie

You can watch the full play, "Sophie", on YouTube here: https://youtu.be/kwh8x2FJkD4

Simon's book, "Those They Called Idiots: The Idea of the Disabled Mind from 1700 to the Present Day" is available here: http://www.reaktionbooks.co.uk/display.asp?ISB=9781789143010

Listen to Simon on the "People First" podcast, a a self-advocacy group run by, and for, people with learning disabilities here: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-people-first-podcast-episode-14-simon-jarrett/id1572971263?i=1000555730169

Bob Gates' monograph on intellectual disability nursing is available to RCN members through the Library and Archive or to non-members here: https://books.emeraldinsight.com/page/detail/Intellectual-Disability-Nursing/?k=9781839821554

Episode 6 delves more deeply into the themes from our exhibition, "A History of Care or Control?" on the history of learning disability nursing.

Content warning: This episode contains a number of terms from learning disability history that are offensive today, especially in the interview with Simon who discusses them as an important part of understanding the history and attitudes towards disabled people.

First, hear from writer and performer Emily Curtis and her sister Sophie Potter, who has Down's Syndrome. Emily recently performed her play "Sophie", at the RCN, which explores the sisters' shared experiences growing up together in Hull, including the stigma and the joy Down's Syndrome brought to their lives.

Next, historian Dr Simon Jarrett tells us about the often surprising history of learning disability, including how it was understood in the eighteenth century and what the phrase "to live in the community" really means. Simon's book, "Those They Called Idiots" was published by Reaktion in 2020.

Finally, retired learning disability nurse Professor Bob Gates tells us about his oral history project collecting the untold stories of nurses who had spent decades working with people with learning disabilities in the large residential hospitals of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

The Past Caring podcast is produced by Natalie Steed and presented by Frances Reed.

Here are some links for more info:

View "A History of Care or Control?" online here: https://www.rcn.org.uk/library-exhibitions/Learning-disability-2020

Visit the exhibition at the RCN Library and Heritage Centre until March 2023: https://www.rcn.org.uk/library/About-us/Library-and-Heritage-Centre

Sophie is a Mencap Myth Buster: https://www.mencap.org.uk/mythbusters/sophie

You can watch the full play, "Sophie", on YouTube here: https://youtu.be/kwh8x2FJkD4

Simon's book, "Those They Called Idiots: The Idea of the Disabled Mind from 1700 to the Present Day" is available here: http://www.reaktionbooks.co.uk/display.asp?ISB=9781789143010

Listen to Simon on the "People First" podcast, a a self-advocacy group run by, and for, people with learning disabilities here: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-people-first-podcast-episode-14-simon-jarrett/id1572971263?i=1000555730169

Bob Gates' monograph on intellectual disability nursing is available to RCN members through the Library and Archive or to non-members here: https://books.emeraldinsight.com/page/detail/Intellectual-Disability-Nursing/?k=9781839821554

44 min

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