The New Asylum is the third volume in a series of free-verse poetry anthologies and personal memoirs from Australian author Frank Prem (Small Town Kid, Devil In The Wind). This collection is an exposé of life in the public psychiatric system, spanning five decades and describing sometimes graphically, sometimes ironically, often poignantly, and always honestly, a search for meaning in … meaning in extraordinary and often incomprehensible circumstances.
The journey begins with childhood experiences of watching immigrant parents earn their living in the Mayday Hills Mental Asylum… progresses through the oddities and antics of psychiatric nurse training in the 1970s… on to the high-pressure coalface of managing regional centres facing an inundation of modern urban challenges… and finally, settles into the generally calmer waters of a small town residential facility.
Join Frank Prem on his New Asylum journey, and discover what it means to become that particular ‘mental health creature’ that is a psychiatric nurse.
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I have the utmost respect for those who work with mental health patients. It must be one of the most challenging jobs to be a psychiatric nurse. The relentless and at times hopelessness of such an experience is delivered in poetic form in this memoir with a wry mixture of sadness, melancholy and just the right amount of humour. The free style verse is a perfect stylistic choice for this type of memoir.
Frank Prem’s poetry delivers a powerful punch – I also enjoyed Devil in The Wind: https://mjmallon.com/2019/06/17/book-review-of-devil-in-the-wind-by-frank-prem-poetry-blacksaturday-wildfires/
My rating of The New Asylum: 5 stars. #highlyrecommended
The New Asylum: a memoir of psychiatry- A glimpse behind the walls created by mental health
Mental health is not an easy subject to write about as it is one of the health issues that is feared probably more than any other. For the elderly who face possible dementia, and for parents who suddenly see dramatic changes in their children’s behaviour.
Frank Prem draws on his experience as a child with parents working in the local asylum, and also as an adult psychiatric nurse and manager within the developing mental health system. He writes poignantly, not just from his own perspective but also from that of the patients. Most of whom exhibit irrational and challenging behaviours within the same diagnosed psychosis, and who can in many cases only be pacified rather than cured.
The treatments may have moved on from 50 years ago but there is still a stigma attached to mental illness and governmental guidelines are not always supportive of the individual. There are moments of celebration when a patient is considered well enough to go home, but many face the prospect of spending the rest of their lives behind the walls of a secure institution.
It is stark but also compelling reading, and Frank Prem does not dwell on the darker side of mental illness but shares anecdotes that demonstrate the bond that is created between patient and carer. I came away with a new respect for those who dedicate their lives to looking after patients who are handicapped by lack of understanding or reason. No day seems to be the same and clearly one has to be prepared for the unexpected.
I enjoyed the flow of the verse throughout the collection that I have come to expect from this talented writer. I also appreciate his ability to draw the reader in to the lives of those who work and reside behind the walls of the asylum.
First, I’d like to tell you this memoir contains precise and defined rawness that comes from close connections to both sides of the story. It is told in free-verse poetry, but it is a real story, a recounting of real events, nothing less than a stark reflection.
Words can’t do justice to the emotional journey I travelled in there. I don’t think anything can. My heart bled, my eyes burned. And I will read it again, to remind me. I will press those buttons.
It’s personal, it’s honest, it has claws.
To see and feel the plight of people with no hope of answers … oh, God … sanity prevails, or was that something else? And we understand the choices, the feeling of being backed into terrible options. We understand. We do. I do.
I don’t want to scare anyone off, because this memoir is a stunning story; it left me raw in places that already bear scars. I doubt you’ll come out the other side without the burn of shock at how well you know each story.