{"id":967,"date":"2012-02-04T12:20:29","date_gmt":"2012-02-04T12:20:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/whitchurchhospital.co.uk\/?p=967"},"modified":"2012-02-04T12:20:29","modified_gmt":"2012-02-04T12:20:29","slug":"highs-and-lows-at-ely-hospital","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/whitchurchhospital.co.uk\/?p=967","title":{"rendered":"Highs and lows at Ely Hospital"},"content":{"rendered":"

http:\/\/www.walesonline.co.uk\/cardiffonline\/cardiff-news\/2012\/01\/28\/highs-and-lows-at-ely-hospital-91466-30214515\/<\/a><\/p>\n

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Cian O'Donoghue, training coordinator for Cardiff People First<\/p><\/div>\n

In the final installment of our Ely Hospital series, CLARE HUTCHINSON looks at the remarkable story of how former patients came together to share their experiences of the institution with the outside world.<\/strong><\/p>\n

WHEN Ely Hospital finally closed its doors in 1997, it heralded a new era for people with learning disabilities in Cardiff.<\/p>\n

Instead of living in a hospital, 30 to a ward, the institution\u2019s former patients were out in the community, living in their own supported accommodation \u2013 some in small groups, others on their own.<\/p>\n

\u201cMany of the people who lived at Ely Hospital never had the chance to do many things on their own and that\u2019s what made resettlement so difficult,\u201d said Karen Jeffreys, who helped facilitate the Ely Hospital project.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven now, many people who were at the hospital find it difficult to make choices and still have a healthy respect for support workers.\u201d<\/p>\n

The group Karen works for, Cardiff People First, started as an advocacy group set up by residents living in Ely Hospital. Many of those former residents still work with the group and it was their idea to come forward and tell the wider public about their time at the institution.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe idea came out of a meeting with members of Cardiff People First and our young people\u2019s group, Cardiff Young People First,\u201d said Karen.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe older people brought along a video called Ely Voices, which they had done when the hospital was being closed, and it quickly became clear that the young people had no idea what Ely Hospital was.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were asking \u2018why were you living in a hospital?\u2019 and \u2018were you allowed out?\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cYou could see that they really didn\u2019t know about what used to happen to some people with a learning difficulty.\u201d<\/p>\n

After pitching their idea to the Heritage Lottery Fund, the group was given \u00a325,000 from the organisation to make it a reality.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter setting up a steering group made up of members from Cardiff and Newport People First, we sent out a letter via the social work team, who talked to former residents about telling their story,\u201d said Karen.<\/p>\n

\u201cLots of people contacted us wanting to get involved \u2013 staff as well as former patients.<\/p>\n

\u201cMeanwhile, members of Young People First received training in camera and interviewing skills so they could interview former workers and the women\u2019s group went out to Glamorgan Archives to research the hospital\u2019s history.\u201d<\/p>\n

The exhibition itself includes a replica of the dayroom at Ely Hospital \u2013 complete with board games and Christmas decorations \u2013 as well as a bed like those on the wards, a shadow puppet theatre created by the young people\u2019s group and a snakes and ladders game which shows the highs and lows of life at Ely Hospital.<\/p>\n

As well as the exhibits, the exhibition includes video interviews with former patients and staff and written stories about life at the hospital.<\/p>\n

Karen added: \u201cPeople do have good memories \u2013 because you can\u2019t live your life somewhere without having good memories \u2013 but there were also many sad and, at times, shocking stories that came out.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe members of Cardiff People First who lived in Ely Hospital have always talked about what it was like, but this is the first time they have been heard.<\/p>\n

\u201cSince the exhibition opened last week, scores of people have come in or been in touch to tell us about their own experiences.<\/p>\n

\u201cGetting people to share their own stories was one of our main aims. No matter whether the story is good or bad \u2013 we want everybody with a memory of Ely Hospital to come forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

http:\/\/www.walesonline.co.uk\/cardiffonline\/cardiff-news\/2012\/01\/28\/highs-and-lows-at-ely-hospital-91466-30214515\/   In the final installment of our Ely Hospital series, CLARE HUTCHINSON looks at the remarkable story of how former patients came together to share their experiences of the institution with the outside world. WHEN Ely Hospital finally closed its doors in 1997, it heralded a new era for people with learning disabilities in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33,77,17],"tags":[88,4,80],"class_list":["post-967","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ely-hospital","category-news","category-photos","tag-ely-hospital","tag-news","tag-photos"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/whitchurchhospital.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/967","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/whitchurchhospital.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/whitchurchhospital.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whitchurchhospital.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whitchurchhospital.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=967"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/whitchurchhospital.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/967\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":995,"href":"https:\/\/whitchurchhospital.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/967\/revisions\/995"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/whitchurchhospital.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=967"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whitchurchhospital.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=967"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whitchurchhospital.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=967"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}