| Maddy Gerrish |
 Maddy Gerrish was born in the Rocky Mountains in Idaho, and feels the tradition of female health carers in her family stemming
back to the seventeenth century influenced her decision to study nursing at the University of Maine. Her first job was in
Boston, and Maddy was involved with the mental health movement developing here in the early 1960s, and was one of the founders
of the Boston Family Institute. This interest in family therapy inevitably led to contact with death, dying and bereavement.
She then took a Masters in Psychiatric Nursing before taking at job at Tufts Medical School as the Director of Family Care
in the oncology department. This department was situated within Lemuel Shattuck Hospital and the majority of patients were
terminal cases. Maddy was keen to introduce a family therapy/systems theory approach and contacted the National Institutes
of Health for a multidisciplinary grant for research into this area. However, a conflict with the Medical Director over the
leadership of this project forced her resignation shortly after she had met Eric Wilkes who had been visiting Lemuel Shattuck
in 1969-70. Eric Wilkes was impressed by her family systems approach, and unable to find this expertise in Britain, invited
Maddy Gerrish to St Luke's Hospice in 1970-71, and again in 1973. Maddy advised on some of the early management/staffing problems
in the new hospice. Back in the USA, Maddy gained a PhD in Psychology in 1988 and now works as a Geriatric Mental Health Consultant.
The interview addresses some of the power and gender issues at work in both hospices, and the larger health care environment.
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| Interview conducted by Neil Small, 31 May 1996 |
| Interview Duration: 55 minutes |
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