Henderson Heritage Group - Beyond Clinical Settings

The original Henderson Hospital unit was opened at Belmont Hospital in 1947 and was for sixty years an internationally-renowned centre of excellence for the humane treatment of trauma survivors and the epitome of the Democratic Therapeutic Community model. Its doors were closed for the last time in 2008 after impacting and in many cases transforming the lives of generations of people who lived and worked there and at the linked Communities at Webb House and Main House.

Henderson Heritage Group was founded in 2019 and is a small organisation consisting of people who lived at or worked at one of the three Henderson Democratic Therapeutic Communities. All three communities are represented in the membership of HHG. We have come together to preserve the archive and memory of the Henderson Communities, and to think about ways in which aspects of the collective work of the three Communities can continue to shape future directions in health and social care in ever more precarious times.

HHG was the inaugural winner of the annual Elly Jansen Award for research and writing on therapeutic communities. Through research conducted by HHG over the last couple of years, we have explored and attempted to articulate how the ethical and operational principles of DTCs, as embodied in our lived experience, inform and shape our work, both through conscious design and unconsciously. We will present some of our findings via audio/visual material, excerpts and panel discussion to promote conversations, in small and large groups, about how some of these principles might be of value and relevance in other organisations, including those beyond a clinical setting.

Please join us on Friday 10 October from 6-8 pm via Zoom to address these questions with a panel of speakers and discussants from Henderson Heritage Group at the HHG’s fourth annual Experiences in Communities Event. Presentations will be followed by reflection and discussion in small and large groups.

A proportion of the available tickets are offered free of charge. Our hope is that this will make it possible for people from a wide range of backgrounds and different life circumstances, with diverse experiences of diverse communities, to attend.

Please do buy a ticket at full price if you feel comfortable about paying the entrance fee (which is £20; early bird £12.50) so that plenty of tickets are available for anyone who might not feel in a position to pay.