After 23 years supporting people with disability I have enjoyed the company and the diversity that is now in my community and would find it hard to not know that in the future. So when I came across some papers that were part of the gathering of statistics for a 1975 national survey into who was living in institutional care facilities around our country and in what conditions they were living, I wanted to collate this information about Willow Court.
I have some papers which will not be published by me or this group as the detailed information contained in them is private, however the statistical information that can be gathered from these papers is this:
Number of people in each ward.
Gender balance in each ward.
Age of person at admission.
Current age.
Measure of “Mental Retardation” or other diagnosis.
Length of stay in institution.
The information goes on to explore how many toilets had doors that would lock and how many toilets contained toilet paper. The final survey broke down all the data into percentages. It would be interesting to obtain the national data as a comparison. I know that the figures I have are 20 Patients short of the final total, so one ward is missing.
So this is what I have:
Year = 1975
Ward = B
Age range = 12 – 52
Gender = F
Collective years in willow court = 459.5 years
Number of people = 26
Year = 1975
Ward = 9 (45 bed ward 36 people had mental retardation)
Age range = 22 – 81
Gender =
Collective years in willow court = 631 years (2 questionable as short)
Number of people = 36 (45 Bed Ward, only 36 with MR)
Year = 1975
Ward = D
Age range = 17 – 76
Gender = M
Collective years in willow court = 897.4
Number of people = 44
Year = 1975
Ward = E
Age range = 15 – 64
Gender = M
Collective years in willow court = 587.5 years
Number of people = 40
Year = 1975
Ward = F
Age range = 10 – 26
Gender = M 10 F 13 = 23
Collective years in willow court = 187 years
Number of people = 23
Year = 1975
Ward = H
Age range = 11 – 64
Gender = M 11 F 33 = 44
Collective years in willow court = 365 years
Number of people = 44
Year = 1975
Ward = J
Age range = 16 – 74
Gender = F?
Collective years in willow court = 555 years
Number of people = 43
Year = 1975
Ward = L
Age range = 5 – 24
Gender = M 20 F13 = 23
Collective years in willow court = 164.5 years
Number of people = 23
Year = 1975
Ward = M
Age range = 3 – 14
Gender = M 17 F 15 = 22
Collective years in willow court = 128.4 years
Number of people = 22
Year = 1975
Ward = O
Age range = 22 – 63
Gender =
Collective years in willow court = 718 years
Number of people = 42
———————————————————————————————————-
Total people = 343 (study had 363)
Total years spent in institution = 4693.3 years
Age range = 3 – 81 years
I am stunned that we as a community have not enjoyed the diversity that people with disability bring for 4693.3 years collectively. I feel that we are the losers for that decision.