Here is a brief guide to some of the significant events in Together’s history. You can find out more about Henry Hawkins by downloading a PDF of our leaflet about him from the foot of the page.

1871 While working as hospital chaplain at Colney Hatch Asylum in Middlesex, Rev Henry Hawkins writes to the Journal of Mental Science pleading for ‘convalescent homes in connection with asylums for the insane poor’.

1879 Rev Hawkins gets together a group of like-minded people to form the After-care Association for Poor and Friendless Female Convalescents on Leaving Asylums for the Insane.

1880s A committee of women work to ‘find temporary homes in cottages and other homes and look for potential placements in service for women coming out of asylums’. Working parties, largely made of women, raise money, provide clothing and find other ways to help the first clients.

1889 By the end of the decade, 143 cottage homes had been inspected and about 50 people a year were being helped, from 18 different asylums in England and Scotland. The Association has also begun to do its first preventative work by placing ‘some people at risk of becoming insane’ in cottage homes.

1893 The Association sets up the first residential care-home in England for people with mental health problems. At Redhill in Surrey, it has room for nine people.

1894 Men are helped for the first time, and the Association becomes the After Care Association for Poor Convalescents on Leaving Asylums for the Insane.

1904 Rev Hawkins dies, but his work continues. By now about 250 people a year are being helped.

1912 The Association extends its support to patients who are not quite fully recovered, and changes its name to the Mental After Care Association for Poor Persons Convalescent or Recovered from Institutions for the Insane.

1914 The outbreak of the First World War sees a great increase in the demand for the Association’s services. In 1916 alone, Together helps 508 people, including 208 who spend some time in its cottages and 154 for whom jobs are found.

1924 George, the Prince of Wales, becomes Together’s Patron. Royal patronage boosts fundraising and by 1926 Together is helping 2000 people a year: 400 through the cottage homes, 150 through help in finding work, and the rest through visits and help in their homes.

1930s The Great Depression leads to another surge in demand for Together’s services. Despite the lack of ‘situations’ available, 3525 people are helped in 1936, including 280 who are found jobs.

1937 Together runs its first holiday trips to the seaside for 212 hospital patients.

1939 Long-term hospital patients are moved to residential care-homes to make room for injured soldiers returning from the Second World War. This proves so successful that by 1942 the residential care-home model is established and Together is running 50 homes.

The Feversham Report proposes the merger of mental health charities into a single national body. Together opts to retain its independence, arguing the proposal would create a massive bureaucracy insensitive to the needs of individuals.

 A ground-breaking report from Together shows that the vast majority of people with mental health problems can hold down jobs and only prejudice prevents them from working. But the Ministry of Health discounts the findings on the grounds that they are not ‘scientific’.

1950s Together now has several of its own properties, where up to 50 people live as many as five to a room.

1961 Enoch Powell, Minister for Health, sets in motion a new policy of closing the large psychiatric hospitals in favour of caring for people in the community.

1962 Together begins to diversify its care and offer new services. Our first hostel offering short-term care opens in Ipswich.

1970s By now Together owns or leases 13 homes, each with a live-in warden and matron. Low fees from local authorities mean that homes must be large to be economical.

1980s Health and social services contracts are put out to tender, creating a ‘care marketplace’ where service providers such as Together must compete for ‘business’ on cost. ‘Care in the community’ gets a bad name because many people are returned to the community without there being any funding in place to provide them with appropriate support.

The 1984 Registered Homes Act sets out new rules for how care-homes should be run, and new, more positive attitudes to the rights of service-users are developing throughout the mental health field. The ‘social-care model’ adopted by Together encourages service-users to make more choices about all aspects of their lives, from what they want for meals to which medication to take.

New contracts introduce a 40-hour week for Together residential staff and encourage them to move out of the care-homes. The organisation begins to place more emphasis on staff training and becomes one of the first voluntary-sector organisations to pioneer NVQs.

1993 In response to the Community Care Act of 1990, Together starts to broaden the range of services that it offers, setting up community-care services etc.

1996 By now Together has expanded once more into the Midlands and the North of England and employs some 400 staff in a wide variety of services, including community support, supported housing, employment training, social clubs, services for people involved with the criminal justice system, and special hospital advocacy, as well as its range of registered care-homes.

1997 During 1997/8 Together decentralises its structure and sets up regional offices in Epsom, Cheshunt and Rochdale. The Staff Consultative Committee is set up.

1998 The organisation changes its name to Together (The Mental After Care Association). The scope of the organisation’s work is widened to include education, research and campaigning work.

2000 Further expanding the range of services we provide, the organisation starts to run our first assertive-outreach and personal-development services.

2002 The Care Standards Act sets out new guidelines for the quality of residential care. Together opens its first crisis house.

2003 The Supporting People programme encourages the development of new tenancy-support services to people with mental health problems who are living in the community. Together is contracted to run several Supporting People services.

2004 Together celebrates its 125th anniversary. We continue to develop new services and find new ways to support people who have experienced mental distress.

Community Care in the Making
The full story of Together’s growth and development over more than a century in mental health care is told in Community Care in the Making: A History of Together 1879–2000. Providing a fascinating account of trends in mental health care across the twentieth century, the 82pp paperback is available from Together for £10 (including postage and packing). To order, email malcolm-macfarlane@together-uk.org or send your payment (cheques made payable to Together) to Together, 12 Old Street, London EC1V 9BE (020 7780 7300).

You can also read an article on the transition from hospitals to community care by former Together Trustee Dr David Abrahamson.

Together’s archives
Together’s archives are kept in the Contemporary Medical Archives Centre in the Library at the Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine (ref SA/MAC). See the link at the foot of the page to find our more about the Library.