The hill of health : aspects of community at Waipiata Sanatorium 1923-1961

Abstract

Through an investigation of Waipiata Sanatorium from 1923 to 1961, I hope to show that the experiences of both staff and patients were complex and varied, and that the sanatorium experience cannot be dismissed as uniformly unpleasant and ineffective. I also hope to show that analogies with Goffman's 'total institution' are misleading, and that Waipiata Sanatorium is better represented as a unique kind of community, more often resembling a country town than a medical institution. I will argue it was in this creation of community that the real benefit of sanatorium treatment lay, because it provided an atmosphere that was accepting of tuberculosis patients at a time when they suffered from stigma and discrimination. The sanatorium system may have had unpleasant aspects and did not 'cure' all those who participated in the treatment, but at a time when medical science could offer no relief, sanatorium communities provided a way of life that made living with the disease more tolerable.

The first two chapters of this work consider the various experiences of the staff and patients who made up the core of the Sanatorium community. They explore the idea that Goffman's central tenet of a total institution, that staff and patients are unequal and opposing groups whose interaction is formally proscribed, does not apply to Waipiata Sanatorium, Instead staff and patients were fluid and interchanging members of a community that was dedicated to the wellbeing of the patients and to making life with tuberculosis as tolerable as possible, balancing the need for institutional structures with an understanding of the emotional and psychological needs of both staff and patients. The third chapter looks in more detail at aspects of community at Waipiata, both within the Sanatorium itself and its place within the wider Maniototo Plains. It also compares the experiences of Sanatorium patients with those of tuberculosis sufferers who remained outside these communities. [extract from Introduction]