One In Five for Sunday 16 December 2012

Mental health services have been available in the central north island for 82 years now. For most of that time the focal point was Tokanui hospital just south of Te Awamutu. At its height, 1200 residents lived at Tokanui and a community arose around it.  

Earlier this year Changing Times, Changing Places was published – a collective history of mental health services in the Midland district. It traces the evolution and complex history of mental health care in the greater Waikato and describes an institution that was a place of ‘ utter despair, of hope, of care, or treatment, of employment and of much, much more.” One in Five speaks to two of the people who helped put the book together.