Tavistock and Portman NHS Trust

The Tavistock and Portman NHS Trust was established in 1994. It is the leading NHS mental health postgraduate training organisation, with more than 120 professional staff providing training for over 1200 students each year. Each year around 3000 patients are seen in the Clinics, with an annual average of around 47,000 attendances

The Tavistock Clinic was established by Dr Hugh Crighton-Millar in 1920. It was opened as a response to the effects of the First World War which left many men permanently scarred by the brutality of battle. The effects of emotional trauma, 'shell shock', were not widely understood or treated by doctors at the end of the War, it was the work of Hugh Crighton-Millar which changed this. He opened the clinic in Tavistock Square to be a place where people who were struggling to hold on to their work could find understanding. He continually stressed the importance of respect to even the most foolish of patients.

Between 1932 and 1939 there were major advances in treatment and training, with considerable growth in the number of staff and trainees. Many of those trained at the Tavistock went on to occupy leading positions in the fields of psychiatry and child guidance in the UK and overseas. During the Second World War the Clinic moved to Hampstead and the greater part of the trained staff joined the armed forces as psychiatric specialists. The war-time experiences they encountered were to influence the Clinic for the remainder of the century. In the post-war period research and development at the Tavistock had a radical impact of several aspects of medical practice, including GP training and practice, child care in hospital, and health and social policy.

In July 1948 the Tavistock Clinic became part of the NHS. It moved to its current position in Belsize Lane in 1967.

The origins of the Portman Clinic lie in a report to the Medical Research Council by Dr Grace Pailthorpe. She was concerned with 'what we put in prison' and was a co-founder of the Clinic. The Portman was established at a time when new ideas about the psychological and psychoanalytical treatment of offenders were arousing great excitement. This resulted in the foundation of the Association for the Scientific Treatment of Delinquency. The clinical part of the association opened as the 'Psychophic Clinic' for the out-patient treatment of offenders. By 1949 it was called the Portman Clinic, after its location in Portman Square, and had joined the NHS. The Clinic moved to its present location in Belsize Lane in 1970.