Sixth annual report of the Inverness District Lunatic Asylum : May 1870.

  • Inverness District Lunatic Asylum.
Date:
1870
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Sixth annual report of the Inverness District Lunatic Asylum : May 1870. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    For the rest little can be done beyond supplying their physical wants ; but there is a gain to the public in being protected from the annoyance to which they would be exposed from many were they at liberty. And in connection with this point, it lias further to be considered, that the attendants under whom the patients are placed, and on whom so much of the general condition of an Asylum de¬ pends, are frequently unfit to set an example in tidiness, in per¬ sonal behaviour, or in the use of the needle. The staff of at¬ tendants is, however, numerically strong. It consists, on the male side, of a head attendant, a night attendant, and 15 ordinary attendants ; and on the female side of 10 ordinary attendants and 1 night attendant. The wages for males vary from £23 to £28. and for females from £10 to £13. Of the females, three are un¬ able to sign their names. Since last inspection, however, no at¬ tendant has been discharged on account of misconduct. The male patients were quiet and free from excitement, but there was a considerable amount of vociferation among the females, which would probably be lessened by more exercise in the open air. At this season, however, the weather is frequently unfavour¬ able to extended walks, and the terraces in front of the House, although advancing towards completion, are still unfit for use. Still it is verv desirable that some efforts were made to reduce the «/ restlessness—the want of settlement, so to speak—which was painfully apparent throughout the female department. It is, however, very remarkable, that no window throughout the House requires to be guarded, although the panes are unusually large, and the means of escape are thus comparatively easy. From this structure of the windows great precautions should be taken in the selection of patients for the upper dormitories, where, from the absence of shutters, and the comparative withdrawal of supervision during the period between the patients’ and the attendants’ going to bed, suicide by precipitation is far from impossible. Owing to the small number of female workers the amusement hall is scarcely appropriate for their accommodation. From the manner in which they spread themselves over it, their supervision becomes difficult, and a distressing echo aggravates the effect of any outbreak of excitement. On this account it will be proper to make the experiment of using one of the day rooms as a work room. i The physical aspect of the patients has certainly undergone an