As one of our comments resulted in such a good response from the Historical Society I thought I would give some more information in a post.<\/p>\n
The Mental Treatment Act 1930<\/p>\n
Under the highly legalistic and bureaucratic \u2018Lunacy Act of 1890\u2019, individuals were usually admitted to an \u2018asylum\u2019 following a formal, legal process that resulted in the person being \u2018certified\u2019 (received into hospital via a legal \u2018reception order\u2019- signed by a justice of the peace and accompanied by medical recommendation(s)) for care and treatment. Such admission requirements were modified according to whether the patient was of \u2018private\u2019 or \u2018pauper\u2019 status, and the degree of perceived urgency for such admissions. The 1930 \u2018Mental Treatment Act\u2019, which came into force on 1st. January 1931, established a less formalised system of admission, making a new provision for \u2018voluntary\u2019 admissions.<\/p>\n
\u2018Voluntary patients\u2019 sought admission for assessment and treatment under their own \u2018free will\u2019, without the need for the formalised legal process of \u2018certification\u2019. The person could also discharge themselves voluntarily, giving 72 hours notice to do so. For the first time, too, individuals could seek voluntary treatment within hospital, as an outpatient.<\/p>\n
Reflecting changing social trends and attitudes, the 1930 Act also replaced terms such as \u2018lunacy\u2019, \u2018lunatic\u2019 and \u2018asylum\u2019 with the terms \u2018mental illness\u2019, \u2018person of unsound mind\u2019 and \u2018mental hospital\u2019.<\/p>\n
The 1930 Act was also an attempt to demystify and destigmatise \u2018mental illness\u2019 per se, and to place it on a par with physical illness. Indeed, the second physician superintendent of Whitchurch Hospital, Dr. McKeowan, hailed the new Act as a \u2018Magna Carta\u2019 for patient rights and liberty.<\/p>\n
Thanks to Mike Jones for this contribution.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
As one of our comments resulted in such a good response from the Historical Society I thought I would give some more information in a post. The Mental Treatment Act 1930 Under the highly legalistic and bureaucratic \u2018Lunacy Act of 1890\u2019, individuals were usually admitted to an \u2018asylum\u2019 following a formal, legal process that resulted […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[83],"class_list":["post-705","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mental-health-act","tag-mental-health-act"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/whitchurchhospital.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/705","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/whitchurchhospital.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/whitchurchhospital.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whitchurchhospital.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whitchurchhospital.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=705"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/whitchurchhospital.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/705\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":751,"href":"https:\/\/whitchurchhospital.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/705\/revisions\/751"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/whitchurchhospital.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whitchurchhospital.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whitchurchhospital.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}