Old fashioned convalescence holidays. Were they a real thing or only in stories?

[StillTheOneIRunToooooo]

I read a lot of Enid Blyton type books in my childhood 😂🙈

I've been having shingles in my eye. The thought of convalescing in the country or by the sea is really rather inviting.

My father-in-law had polio as a child in the 1950s and was sent to somewhere in Kent for six weeks, I believe.

@ClaudiusTheGod

Definitely a thing. In Liverpool, people went to a specific place somewhere on the North Wales coast to convalesce. Can’t recall its name now. GPs often sent women there after hysterectomies. They would have simply returned to the drudgery at home much too soon otherwise.

My mil had a hysterectomy 25 years ago and she spent two weeks in convalescence "hotel". It was within the hospital grounds, she says, but separate. I think she may have had to pay towards some, if not all, of it, but it meant time to recover.

We still have them here. It’s mountain air anyway, but many people get sent for ‘kur’ in a nice spa hotel for a a few weeks.

You can ask your doctor who will sign you off for one. You then just spend your time being fed and in saunas. You can go to them with baby also

@Caspianberg

We still have them here. It’s mountain air anyway, but many people get sent for ‘kur’ in a nice spa hotel for a a few weeks.

You can ask your doctor who will sign you off for one. You then just spend your time being fed and in saunas. You can go to them with baby also

That sounds marvellous

It does sound marvellous doesn't t

As a child my DM was sent to spend the summer on a farm in Yorkshire for her health.

Definitely a thing.

My DM was sent to a convalesence home by the sea after being ill with rheumatic fever in the mid 40s. I guess she was about 4 as my grandparents decided that she should start school a year late because she had been ill. Despite being so young to be away from her parents, she seems to have enjoyed it.

My grandad used to pay ‘a penny in the pound’ from his wages and he was sent to the Lake District for a week to convalesce.

@TheYearOfSmallThings

They were a real thing. In Germany you can still get your GP to send you for a "kur" (cure) for up to 3 weeks if you need it.

Austria too. For many people, it’s their yearly holiday. Farmers tend to go for three weeks in January.

20+ years ago , I went on a champneys spa weekend, I remember a lady telling us she was there for a month to recover from surgery. Why not if you can afford it !

@Givemeallthegin8. Could you share more details about these in Ireland? Asking on behalf of my Mum...

Do we think some people go on to develop complications/extra illnesses/ repeating bouts of said illness because they couldn't take the time they needed in the first place to get properly fit and well before having to be back right in the thick of it of their normal life? I have got quite a lot of xomplications and disabilities resulting from type one diabetes. When i was diagnosed aged just over 12 i weighed around 6 stone (down from ten in a few months) had heart problems , skin problems etc. I remember the skin on my fingers being so sore and painful and hard it was cracking, i also remember one absolutely fantastic nurse that would spend a long while sitting with me and rubbing cream into my poorly fingers and her genuine elation when after doing so on night we had got them to a state i could bend hem a little and almost lift a cup. I was in hospital a good while but when diagnosed the hospital did not want me to return to chores, school etc. My family didn't care and i wad back to working and also a commute to school of over an hour each way. I often look back and realise that a lot of my complications were caused by awful blood sugars and just having to carry on through it. If i had of been able to have more time i think it would have

@Ifailed

It was not uncommon for people who didn't need to be in hospital, but needed some assistance to be transferred into convalescence homes before they were well enough to return home.

Like many things, this was all destroyed by Thatcher's "Care in the Community" philosophy, where by people where sent home to be cared for there, often by blackmailing their family (women, of course) to take on the role. All driven to save money, now all we are left with is private care homes run to make a profit.

When I started work in the 1960s it was quite normal to pay a small amount from wages to cover convalescent homes. Some were owned by unions and others were city wide or certain occupations. They died a death in my city in the 1970s, nothing to do with Thatcher but it became an open secret that certain people got 2 weeks free holiday in them every year while ordinary members struggled to get a place.

It must be the same concept but even worse for people having to immediately return to sole care of a baby for e.g. Etc. I am so sorry you are suffering OP.i will keep a happy thought for you and all others and if you get your mountain air send us mumsnetters a virtual postcard won't you :) . Also you have reminded me of one of the books i studied in college, an Ibsen play - Hedda Gabler. In which she has arrangef

Yes, they were a real thing, usually at the coast or in the country side, they were of huge benefit to the patient’s full recovery.

Some had a regime of open air, with wards having open verandas for the beds. Some had extensive grounds with the patients encouraged to sit outside as much as possible.
After the war, many of the hospitals that had been established in stately homes etc to care for injured servicemen, became convalescent homes.

If you’d had a difficult birth, you and your baby were sometimes sent to a convalescent home for a week or two, even though in those far off days, it was quite usual to stay in hospital for a week or ten days after a normal straight forward birth.

After my little cousin had rheumatic fever she was sent to a convalescent home deep in the countryside for a couple of months.

A soujourn in the Tyrol with lots of sachertorte and wine would fix me up nicely. I'd be less enthused to be wheeled along the promenade in Bournemouth and fed calves foot jelly.

@MurderAtTheBeautyPageant

A soujourn in the Tyrol with lots of sachertorte and wine would fix me up nicely. I'd be less enthused to be wheeled along the promenade in Bournemouth and fed calves foot jelly.

You read the same books as me 😂

They were always shaving off hair too, which I am not signing up for.

Convalescent homes were definitely a thing. I grew up on the Kent coast, and there was a convalescent home at the end of my road. We used to go to their annual fundraising summer fete. It closed years ago and has since been knocked down.

I also remember the Royal Seabathing Hospital in Margate, which I think treated TB patients who were sent there for the sea air. Also closed, and now converted into luxury homes.

Yup, they were a real thing. My Dad was sent to one in Saltcoats as a child in the 1960s

I’d be up for a month in the Tyrol with your regime @MurderAtTheBeautyPageant!
Perhaps we could encourage Justine in a new business venture, Mumsnet Convalescent Homes!

I was lucky enough to spend some time in a former miners' convalescent home in East Lothian for a work thing a couple of years ago, fascinating place in an Arts and Crafts building and very much a 'thing' - not just for rich Enid Blyton types either, miners would apply to their union rep for the chance to spend a fortnight recuperating in the sea air. There was a matron and a nursing team, three meals a day, lots of rules about not drinking in the home...

My father-in-law had polio as a child in the 1950s and was sent to somewhere in Kent for six weeks, I believe.

There was a children's convalescent home at Broadstairs. We used to see the children on the beach when I had family holidays there as a child.

At another Kent resort there was a convalescent home for railway workers at one time. Not sure who it was run by - the union or the railway company or someone else.

There were also open air schools for children. I think they started for TB but as that was controlled they were used for other things. Living in the inner city of a big industrial city I remember kids disappearing to them for a month or two and coming back having put on weight and looking healthy. Some ended up going more than once.

My mum.spent 3 months in a convalescent home after a car accident, 50 ish years ago.