Before she became a psychiatric nurse at "The Mental" in the 1950s, Kay Parley was a patient there, as were the father she barely remembered and the grandfather she'd never met. Part memoir, part history, and beautifully written, Inside The Mental offers an episodic journey into the stigma, horror, and redemption that she found within the institution's walls.

Now in her nineties, Parley looks back at the emerging use of group therapy, the advent of patients' rights, evolving ethics in psychiatry, and the amazing cast of characters she met there.

She also reveals her role in groundbreaking experiments with LSD, pioneered by the world's leading researchers at "The Mental" to treat addiction and mental illness.

Kay Parley is an author and journalist, a visual artist, a former teacher and psychiatric nurse. She has written twenty-seven books but The Grass People is her first fantasy novel. Kay began writing The Grass People in 1976 and finished it twenty years later. She is a weekly syndicated newspaper columnist and volunteers as public speaker who advocates for mental wellness. Kay is ninety-five years old and still writes every day using an electric typewriter. She currently lives in Regina, Saskatchewan

Kay Parley's profile page

"A revelatory account of the importance that psychiatric treatment and research from the 1950s has for mental health today."

Jean Freeman