Annual report of the General Board of Commissioners in Lunacy for Scotland : 7th 1865
- Great Britain. General Board of Commissioners in Lunacy for Scotland.
- Date:
- 1865
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Annual report of the General Board of Commissioners in Lunacy for Scotland : 7th 1865. Source: Wellcome Collection.
257/290 (page 237)
![parochial aid, to which they felt they had a claim only when called on to meet Appendix the cost of maintenance in an asylum. The patient is thus withdrawn from the F. roll of paupers, and remains at home under the care of friends. General The arrangements made by inspectors of poor for patients discharged on proba- hat wer 7 tion are, in the majority of cases, judicious, but they are not so inall. ‘The case of a Private J.S.,in the parish of A., isa striking illustration of insufficient care. When brought pwellincs home a fixed allowance was given to her, and a room provided for her in the house ke of an acquaintance. Her weekly rent she paid herself, she bought her own food, kept a separate store, and cooked for herself; in short, she was a mere lodger, and under no guardianship. The whole arrangement was calculated to make her feel that she was entirely her own mistress, with power to do what or go where she liked. Accordingly, when the first want of agreement took place between her and the person with whom she lodged, she went and hired another - room; and this was the commencement of a series of changes which ended in such restlessness, that it was found necessary to place her again in an asylum, after having been out of it for two years. This patient was seen at the beginning of her probationary period, and a report was then sent to the Board disapproving of the arrangement, and pointing to what has taken place as the probable result. There are other cases in my district in which the arrangement has been faulty in the way described, and in them I look for the same issue. The error being once committed, it is found difficult to apply the remedy, and in some instances it has been thought best to leave the case to take its own course. * Another error which is occasionally made in the arrangements for probationary patients, consists in placing them in lodging-houses for the poor.’ From what I have had opportunities of observing, I am of opinion that the Board should never sanction this. There are many of these houses which cannot be described as comfortable or well conducted. Indeed, this almost follows from the purposes they serve. As showing their unfitness for patients on probation, I have merely to point out that the Board can have no knowledge whatever of the persons who are to occupy the house with the patients, associate with them, and perhaps sleep in the same room or bed; unless perhaps it be a knowledge of them to say that they are usually vagrants, receiving casual aid from the parish, where they seldom rest for more than a few days, if not prostrated by fever, or small-pox, or some other disease. tn no house with a shifting population can there be a guarantee for a uniformly kind treatment of the patient—much less can we find such a guarantee when the population of the house is at once shifting, degraded, and vicious. Patients so situated have comfortless homes; they are liable to be teased, provoked, or ill treated ; in short, they could scarcely be in positions less calculated either to establish and confirm a cure, or to test their fitness for per- manent residence in private houses, which’are the objects aimed at in discharging them on probation. I have had frequent occasion to point out to inspectors of poor the propriety of granting a liberal allowance to those pauper lunatics who are withdrawn from asylums on probation in the hope of thereby confirming recovery. To secure the end in view, it is extremely desirable that such patients should have every reasonable comfort provided for them, as well as judicious and suitable guardian- ship. With reference to this last—the guardianship—my experience leads me to think that it is often better to place these patients for a few months under the care of strangers than to bring them at once to their own families or friends, among whom the disease originated, and where the conditions which led to it may still exist. I refer more particularly here to those taken out on probation in the hope of confirming recovery, but the same remarks apply with nearly equal force to those whose fitness for continued home treatment is to be tested. I1].—Patients In Houses wira Specran Licenses ror Lunatics NOT EXCEEDING Four. All. the houses of this character in my district have been repeatedly visited by me during the past year. On the occasion of one visit to those situated in the](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b31856251_0257.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
