Mencap Cymru in partnership with St Fagans National Museum of History and regional museums
Hidden now heard
Hidden Now Heard was a three-year (2015-17) National Lottery Heritage Fund oral history project led by the learning disability charity Mencap Cymru.
In partnership with St Fagans National Museum of History and regional museums across Wales, the project captured the untold and often painful living memories of patients, their relatives, and staff from six former long-stay hospitals in Wales.
The Mental Deficiency Act of 1913 called on local authorities to establish long-stay hospitals for people with both mental health conditions and learning disabilities.
Dubbed “colonies” for the “mentally defective”, many of those who were admitted were misdiagnosed and became isolated from society. Mencap Cymru played a lead role in the closure of these long-stay institutions in Wales.
I think by having a person with a learning disability present it can help put people at ease, not just the former patients but the support staff because we have shared experiences as people with a learning disability.
Early in the project development, St Fagans worked closely with Mencap Cymru to train their staff in the ethics and techniques of collecting oral testimony, and to develop accessible consent and copyright forms.
The project generated 97 oral history recordings with 85 individuals – all of which are now archived at St Fagans – and nine temporary exhibitions in regional museums and public spaces across Wales.
Reflecting on her role as project officer and interviewer, Sara Pickard from Mencap Cymru said: “We felt that having someone like myself as part of the interview would help us get the best interview possible.
“In some cases, me being there has helped our interviews. I think by having a person with a learning disability present it can help put people at ease, not just the former patients but the support staff because we have shared experiences as people with a learning disability.”
Mencap Cymru and St Fagans have further developed this model as a framework for Our Social Networks – an ongoing oral history project that explores the friendships and relationships experienced by people with a learning disability living in Wales today. The recordings generated by this project will also become part of the national collection at St Fagans.