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Overcrowding in British mental hospitals was a major service and political concern when the NHS was introduced in 1948. From 1959, a number of projects were initiated locally in Oxfordshire, based from Littlemore Hospital Oxford, to provide alternative accommodation, primarily for long-stay residents. Two NHS hostels were opened and a network of group homes was developed from 1963. These were administered through the hospital League of Friends and supported by the community psychiatric nursing service led by Helmut Leopoldt. From 1977 a separate local charity, Oxfordshire Mind, also provided supported housing for younger patients. These developments can be seen as an early local case study of the provision of non-hospital (supported) accommodation and other forms of support for people with long-term mental health problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many old coastal harbours in the UK are protected by blockwork breakwaters, but the original streams of income for maintaining or refurbishing these structures have largely diminished. Their breakwaters may, however, still protect harbour-side properties against wave overtopping, and thus flooding. This paper presents results from an exploratory study to identify how the blockwork breakwaters common in many smaller UK coastal harbours may collapse due to storm action and how much wave protection is given by collapsed breakwaters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]