Jansen, Elly (1929—)
Jansen, Elly (1929—)
Dutch-born social worker. Born in Holland in 1929; sixth in a family of nine children.
A leading figure in the field of mental health, Elly Jansen was born in Holland, where she studied psychology, trained as a nurse, and worked with disturbed children. In 1955, she went to England to train as a missionary, which, over the next few years, led her into social work with the mentally ill. She realized that help was needed for those newly discharged from mental hospitals to adjust to day-to-day living. In 1959, she rented a house in Richmond, put up a notice in the local hospital, and waited three months before the first applicant appeared. The house became her first therapeutic community, or halfway house, for mental patients. Its success led Jansen to establish the Richmond Fellowship, through which she promoted the re-integration of mental health patients into mainstream society. The fellowship, of which Jansen later became international director, grew to include some 50 houses in Britain, and another 50 scattered throughout nations of the world, including Australia, New Zealand, Austria, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, and the United States. Her publications include The Therapeutic Community Outside the Hospital and Towards a Whole Society. Jansen was made an OBE in 1980.