Inquiries at Lakeside and Aradale Hospitals: lessons and advances?

The release of reports of inquiries into two related psychiatric hospitals (Lakeside and Aradale) in Victoria occurred in 1991. These inquiries identified deficiencies in patient care standards and organisational dynamics. Knowledge of institutional dysfunction was available from similar Australian and overseas inquiries but nonetheless this knowledge had not prevented organisational inertia and decline in these two psychiatric hospitals. This paper examines the possible contribution of a failed medical hegemony model to organisational dysfunction and discusses organisational life-cycles. It reaches the conclusions that politically motivated inquiries do not achieve long term positive outcomes and that there is a need for academic research into the organisation of psychiatric services and staff productivity and morale.