Welcome to the website of the Tuke Institute
What this organisation is about:
The Tuke Institute is an independent, international think-tank. It aims to promote methods and standards in medicine and medical science so that their practice meets the complete needs of people with illness. Its vision is to translate the reality of illness into health-effective medical practice, an approach that integrates all the domains of medicine (prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation); all the professional domains within clinical medicine (nursing, physical, mental, and social medicine); and welcomes contributions from traditions of medicine internationally.
What is distinctive about this organisation:
A majority of the founding contributors consisted of professionals within medicine who have chronic illness themselves and understand the experience of both medical service use and its delivery. These contributors have had to live with and care for others with a range of illnesses including: HIV, viral hepatitis, stroke, infertility, brain injury, cancer, psychosis, mood disorders, heart disease, diabetes, post-traumatic stress disorder, epilepsy, and asthma. Some are permanently disabled. In total, the contributors represented five nationalities, with experience of seven national medical systems, and provide services in nursing, physical, mental, behavioural, social, and preventative medicine, as clinicians, scientists, and community-based service providers.
Some of these contributors continue in the new Public and Providers’ Advisory Group. The remainder has been gratefully acknowledged in the relevant page. Since then, the Organisational and the Scientists’ Advisory Groups have been developed and are continuing the vision of this founding group (see under “Who We Are”).
The name “Tuke”:
The Tuke Institute is named in honour of William Tuke (1732-1822), a leading Quaker philanthropist and merchant who reformed radically the medical treatment of ill people. Tuke first became involved in assessing how medicine was practised when a fellow Quaker with mental illness died in the York Asylum, England. He was appalled by the inhumane medical practice at the hospital, including the fact that people were chained to the wall at the neck and around the body, without proper food or sanitation. In the spring of 1792, Tuke appealed to the (Quaker) Society of Friends to make a difference and sufficient funds were raised to be able to open the York Retreat in 1796, where Tuke pioneered new methods of treatment based on the respectful treatment of ill people, with mental and social treatment as an essential part of practice.
The approach that William Tuke developed came to form one of the main foundations of biopsychosocial medicine. While his special interest was mental illness, scientific advances during the last century have shown unequivocally the interdependence of physical, mental, and social issues in causing and treating all illness and has underlined the importance of the biopsychosocial model to all modern medical practice. William Tuke's respect and generosity in the treatment of ill people reflect spiritual values that permeate and guide the work of the Tuke Institute.
The Tuke Institute is an exempt charitable organisation.