Report of the Royal Commission on the care and control of the feeble-minded, Volume VIII.

  • Great Britain. Royal Commission on the Care and Control of the Feeble-minded.
Date:
1908
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Report of the Royal Commission on the care and control of the feeble-minded, Volume VIII. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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    Recommendations.) EecOxMMEndation XIX. Notification of mentally defec- tive persons. That it be the statutory duty of the medical oificers of school boards, of the parish councils, of the governors of poor-houses, the inspectors of poor, the medical officers of prisons, the police, and the managers of any reformatories for inebriates or any charitable, religious or voluntary institutions or societies, or any naval or military authorities, to notify to the Board of Control and to the local authority all cases of mental defect which come to their knowledge in the course of duty and appear to fall within Recommendation III. above, provided always that the Secretary for Scotland may, on special grounds to be stated in the Annual Report of the Board, by regulation exempt any particular authorities from the fulfilment of this duty. Recommendation XX. Private patients That Section 14 of the Lunacy (Scotland) Act, 1866, be extended soA'eei)ara not kept for gain, as to covcr all cases of mentally defective persons. graph 10] Note.—The Lunacy (Scotland) Act, 1866, Section 14, above referred to is as follows :— “ If any occupier or inmate of any private house shall keep or detain therein, with- out the order of the Sheriff or the sanction of the Board, any person as a lunatic, although not for gain, beyond the period of one year, and the malady is such as to require compulsory confinement to the house, or restraint or coercion of any kind, .such occupier or inmate shall intimate the case to the Board, and shall state the reasons which render it desirable that such lunatic should remain under private care; and if the Board shall have reason to believe or suspect that any lunatic, or any person treated as a lunatic, whose case has thus been intimated to them, or of whose case no such intimation shall have been made, has been subjected to compulsory confinement to the house, or to restraint or coercion of any kind, at any time beyond a year after the commencement of the malady, or has been subjected to harsh and cruel treatment, it shall be lawful for the Board, with consent of one of Her Majesty’s principal Secretaries of State, or of Her Majesty’s Advocate for Scotland, to authorise and empower any one or more of the members thereof to visit and inspect such lunatic or person detained as a lunatic, and to make such inquiry respecting his treatment as to such member or members may seem fit; and if on such inquiry it shall appear that such person is a lunatic, and has been so for a space exceeding a year, and that compulsory confinement to the house, or restraint or coercion of any kind has been resorted to, or that he has been subjected to harsh and cruel treatment, and that the circumstances are such as to render the removal of such lunatic to an asylum necessary or expedient, it shall be lawful for the Board to apply to the Sheriff, under a procedure similar to that followed in the cases of dangerous lunatics, and the Sheriff, on being satisfied that the person is lunatic, and has been so for more than a year, and is subjected to compulsory confine- ment, or to restraint or coercion of any kind, or to harsh and cruel treatment, shall issue his order for the transmission of the lunatic to an asylum, and his detention therein until such time as the Board shall sanction his discharge ; and the Sherift’ shall grant decree for the expenses of the inquiry and procedure, and also for the maintenance of the lunatic in the asylum, against the parties legally liable for the maintenance of such lunatic.” Recommendation XXI. Transfer from one institution another, or to private care, or vice versa. That in the case of mentally defective persons dealt with by the local See para- to authority no transfer, except as mentioned in the proviso below, shall take place from one institution or home to another or from an institution or home to private care or vice versa without the authority of the local authority and subject to their approval as to the selection of the institution or private care to which the mentally defective person is to be transferred, and the Board of Control shall make such regulations as may appear to them necessary in relation to the several classes of cases for reports of transfers being made to them, and for the granting or withholding of their consent, provided always that the Board of Control may order the transfer of any particular case where it appears to the Board that such transfer is desirable. Medical Officer, Recommendation XXII. That every institution or home for the care of the mentally defective honorary or paid, shall be licensed, and every licensed institution for the care of the mentally for every defective shall through its committee of management appoint an honorary institution. medical officer as a condition of its licence, who shall give such attendance as may be directed by the Board of Control.