Porirua Lunatic Asylum | |
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Geography | |
Location | Porirua, New Zealand |
Coordinates | 41°08′28″S 174°49′55″E / 41.141037°S 174.831952°E |
Organisation | |
Type | Specialist |
Services | |
Speciality | Psychiatric hospital |
History | |
Former name(s) | Porirua Asylum, Porirua Hospital, Porirua Psychiatric Hospital |
Opened | 1887 |
Links | |
Website |
poriruahospitalmuseum |
Lists | Hospitals in New Zealand |
Porirua Lunatic Asylum (alternates: Porirua Asylum, Porirua Hospital, Porirua Psychiatric Hospital; currently: Porirua Hospital Museum) was a psychiatric hospital located in Porirua. Established in 1887, it was at one time the largest hospital in New Zealand. [1] The patients ranged from those with psychotic illnesses, to the senile, or alcoholics.
"It was not really barbaric - they were not shut in and forgotten - they were moved to a clean room every twelve hours - there was no medication - there was nothing else we could do." (Nurse Helen Reilly Ngaere Thompson)
Land was acquired in 1884 for a hospital farm that would offer 'work therapy' to relieve overcrowding at Wellington's Mount View Lunatic Asylum. [3] Construction of a one storied 7,000 square feet (650 m2) building containing 24 apartments, H Ward, began in 1886. Porirua Lunatic Asylum, as it was originally named, [4] was opened in the following year and Dr. Thomas Radford King was appointed as its medical superintendent, though in less than a year, he was replaced by Dr. Gray Hassell. [2]
By 1905, Porirua Hospital had 700 beds. [5] In the early 1900s, the facility had 2000 staff and patients, affording a major effect on the Wellington Region's development. By 1928, nurses moved into their own two-store, 100 room building. The resident population was 1,500 in the 1940s. [6]
After the 1942 Wairarapa earthquakes, 800 patients had to be moved to other hospitals. [7] Subsequently, the main building was demolished and eleven new villas were constructed.
Most patients were released into community-based care in the late 1980s after the release of the Wellington Hospital Board White Paper on psychiatric care. The first built ward, F Ward, was closed in 1977, considered unfit and uneconomical. In 1980, the Puketiro Centre operated as a regional base for children with developmental problems. In 1987, the hospital celebrated its 100-year anniversary, opening the Porirua Hospital Museum in F Ward. [3]