Remembrance - Dr. Bertram Mandelbrote |
|
|
|
|
|
Dr. Bertram Mandelbrote Died, 25th November 2010 PLEASE NOTE: Scottish Addiction Studies has established an online form for friends and colleagues to leave their memories and thoughts of our dear friend. Your memories will be added to this site. If you would like to leave a message about Dr. Mandelbrote, please click HERE. My experience as a medical student in 1980 on Phoenix unit in Oxford is what introduced me to the world of TCs, and made me see medicine and professionalism in a new way – that has never left me. And indeed I felt I had ‘rediscovered' it when I was appointed to be consultant at Winterbourne, just down the road from where Bertie was at Littlemore, in 1994. Bertie wasn't around all that much in those days – but I do remember thinking that he seemed ‘like a real consultant'. I was puzzled how the TC was so different from how he seemed to be - in his dapper suit, quietly spoken and well-mannered way – in a way that I don't think I ever do, thirty years on But he is certainly one of the people who put me on the road to this amazing but impossible way of working...
Reposted from TC-OF Bertie, as he was known, was on the Littlemore Hospital appointments panel of my first job after qualifying as a clinical psychologist in 1970. I worked on his Phoenix Unit from 1970-82, did my first research there, and was involved in the Ley Community when he set that up with Peter Agulnik. Bertie wasn't a natural extrovert, like his contemporary David Clark, at Fulbourn in Cambridge. He was an organizer and manager who set things up and let people get on with it, protecting them from external threats. In my case it was research using the model of Social Breakdown Theory, which Bertie had borrowed from Ernest Gruneberg who he introduced me to on one of his visits from ther USA. Prior to my job, Bertie had got a sociologist Barry Sugarman to research the Phoenix Unit and write it up for New Society. Again unlike David Clark, Bertie was rather small and always dressed in a conventional dark suit. He wasn't an obvious candidate for a radical innovator in social psychiatry, yet he was, and scores of professionals and hundreds of patients have reason to be grateful to him, including me.
Reposted from TC-OF I met Bertie on many occasions when I was working for Lifeline Project. At that time, I would regularly take prospective residents to the Ley Community. There was a period in the early days when the Ley wouldn't accept our referrals without coming North to do their own assessment. When Bertie got to hear about it he contacted us personally and assured us that we could be their assessment arm for North-West England. There may have been other psychiatrists at that time who would have been prepared to let a bunch of ex-addicts do their assessments for them but - off the top of my head - I can't think of a single one. A few years ago, Eric Broekaert, Stijn Vandevelde and I visited Oxford to interview him for a project documenting the experiences of a range of European TC pioneers. I was struck during that interview by the mental acuity and humility of the man - not to mention his courteous welcoming manner and his enthusiasm for our initiative. A truly remarkable man and one whose memory will stay with me for many years.
Snr. Researcher, Scottish Addiction Studies & Vice President, EFTC A man of great integrity and consideration for his patients and staff alike. I had the pleasure to work alongside and for him in the early 70's to the early 80's my brother (who was an inpatient for many years was treated by Dr Mandebrote who made every effort and care to repatriate him into the community, he was a great support to my mother who fought long and hard battles to understand the mental health of those people my brother being one of them, and I feel sure that it was the patience and tolerance of people like Dr M and his colleagues that (my mother has now passed) would be happy to know that my brother is now integrated into a care regime and being looked after with the utmost care and attention. He was a great pioneer.
Former Medical Secretary, Littlemore Hospital, Oxford I remember with great affection working for Dr Mandelbrote both as his secretary at Littlemore Hospital where he was Physician Suoerintendent, and as the Consultant in Charge of the Ley Community. He was a man of inspiration and integrity and seemingly endless energy and compassion. My memories of him over the 10 years I worked for him at Littlemore, and 15 years with him at the Ley Community taught me many things, he was always respectful, thoughtful, and able to obtain the best from staff and colleagues. He also had a wonderful sense of humour. I have a great respect for him and the inspiration he gave to others. I feel truly privileged to have known him and been part of the team around him.
Former Administrator, Ley Community (1975-1989) Bertram Mandelbrote was born in Cape Town, South Africa in 1923. He came to Merton College, Oxford as a qualified Doctor and Rhodes Scholar in 1946 and began his long career becoming a major figure in psychiatric treatment and in the treatment of drug and alcohol addiction. Between 1957 and 1959 as a young psychiatrist Bertram toured 40 US states, visiting universities, mental hospitals and health bodies. He carried with him a film of his patients tearing down the high prison fences that had surrounded the exercise courts of the two hospitals of which he had been in charge since 1955. This provided graphic illustration of revolutionary changes in mental health care, based partly on new drug treatments, but in this case particularly on the concept of group therapy within a supportive community. These changes created a moment in which many who had been confined as a result of mental illness might be offered greater freedom and the prospect of self-discovery and rehabilitation within a humane society. Bertram was a pioneer and an enigmatic character who pushed boundaries for the greater good of people in his care. Mandelbrote persuaded the Rhodes Trustees to allow him a further year of funding to train as a hospital physician. He worked first at the Hammersmith Hospital, but soon decided that he wished to specialise as a psychiatrist and moved to train under Sir Aubrey Lewis at the Maudsley. He did not allow his education as a general physician to go to waste, however, taking two locum jobs in 1949. One was as a consultant at the Royal Hospital, Richmond; the other was at the Western Fever Hospital in Fulham. Mandelbrote made the entirety of his medical career in the National Health Service, which was founded in 1948, the year in which he took his membership of the Royal College of Physicians (Fellow, 1964). At the Maudsley, which was a hospital for voluntary patients, Mandelbrote moved through the ranks from Junior to Senior Registrar, and, in 1952, was involved in the formation in Britain of the Psychosomatic Medicine Society. With Rees s encouragement, he applied at the age of 31 for the position of Physician Superintendant of the twin mental hospitals at Horton Road and Conley Hill in Gloucester, aged just 31. The former county asylums were among the worst and most restrictive psychiatrist hospitals in Britain, but within six months, Dr Mandelbrote had turned them into open-door institutions at the heart of a network of outpatient referral, occupational therapy and community dare units across Gloucester. Mandelbrote s rapid success at Gloucester led to many invitations to lecture at home and abroad, offers of academic jobs, and the chance, in 1959. In 1969 he returned to Oxford as Physician Superintendent of another former county asylum Littlemore hospital. Although the situation at Littlemore was not quite so repressive, Mandelbrote again presided over a transition to an open-door community, which, with the help of staff he had already trained in Gloucester, was accomplished within six weeks. During the early 1970s Mandelbrote responded to growing evidence of mental health problems associated with drug use in the Oxfordshire community by setting up a clinic to treat drug addiction. With the help of Dr Peter Agulnik, and funds provided by a local charitable trust and later by the Oxford Rotary Club, the Ley Community was established as a separate, residential programme for the drug-free rehabilitation of substance misusers in 1971. In July 2010 the Ley Community won a prestigious Centre for Social Justice Award for innovation, effectiveness, efficiency and compassion. Much of Mandelbrote s charitable work during the 1970s and 1980s related to the provision of an environment in which drug users, often with a past history of criminal conviction, could overcome their addiction and embark on creative lives. While this increased clinical focus gave him great pleasure, changes in the administration of the National Health Service reduced the freedom of action to which he had become accustomed. Despite a serious car accident in December 1987, Mandelbrote continued his work in the assessment of drug addiction and in forensic psychiatry almost until his death. He remained active also in the training of occupational therapists, advising the new School of Health and Social Care at Oxford Brookes University and serving as chair of the Casson Trust. He married Kathleen Joyce Howard in November 1949 and is survived by her and two sons.
Chief Executive , Ley Community I had the great fortune to be a patient of Dr. Mandelbrote's on the Phoenix Unit for around 3 months in 1974. The therapy I got (I was 23 years old) cured me (yes, put me into a state of permanent remission) such that now, at the age of 61 I can look back and be very thankful. For the last 31 years I have been living and working successfully as a technical translator in Germany. During that period I have been truely tested: I lost my wife 12 years ago to cancer. Thanks to the treatment I received under Dr. Mandelbrote I have suvived, and - to use the Phoenix motto - re-arisen from the ashes (without the need for any sort of intervention. I can remember my time on Phoenix, especially the Patient's Committee, of which I was a chiarman for a period. This enabled me to see the inner workings of the therapeutic community. During that time I was able to watch Dr. Mandelbrote at close quarters. I dearly the remember the quiet kindness with which he approached us. That great gift of humaniy that he possessed gave me hope at the time, and enabled me to live the Phoenix wrd stronger, never to return. Today I am studying psychology here in Germany for a second degree. I can appreciate what Dr. Mandelbrote did more fully now. So thank you for everything, Bertie!
Former Resident, Phoenix Unit (later Ley Community) Leave your own message or memory here View other TC pioneer remembrance pages here |
|
| Top | Menus created with Milonic |
