Aid for the Elderly in Government Institutions (AEGIS) was a British pressure group that campaigned to improve the care of older people in long-stay wards of National Health Service psychiatric hospitals.
[3] On 21 January 1965, Barbara Robb visited an acquaintance, Amy Gibbs, an in-patient on a long stay back ward at Friern, psychiatric hospital, north London.
She was shocked by what she saw, such as harshness from the nurses and patients' uniformed haircuts, institutional clothing, and, lack of personal possession and job.
[5] Within months, she started AEGIS, Aid for the Elderly in Government Institutions which became of the country's most determined pressure group.
These ranged from the acknowledgment of the allegation of bad practice, such as by the press, to rejection, particularly in the tiers of National Health Service (NHS) administration.