Annual report of the General Board of Control for Scotland : 1923.

Date:
1923
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Annual report of the General Board of Control for Scotland : 1923. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    15/408 (page 9)
    Villas. The main difficulty has been the financial stringency; but, even without the provision of new buildings, efforts are being made to improve the internal conditions by better arrangements and by the provision of means for special treatment and of verandahs to enable patients to be nursed in the open air. Better efforts are also being made to segregate patients known to be suffering from tuberculosis and from dysentery. The suggestions made in our Circular of 15th January, 1919, relating to the handling and treatment of foul linen, have been productive of good results. Dietaries.—The dietaries have everywhere been receiving close attention and are much improved. We hope that the report of the Departmental Committee appointed to enquire into this subject which has just been published* will be found helpful. Personal Hygiene.—Much greater care is now taken to inculcate general cleanliness, including the washing of hands before meals and on other necessary occasions; and especially are these measures insisted upon in the case of patients in any way engaged in the preparation of food. Dental and other Visiting Specialists.—Most Mental Hospitals are now visited weekly by a Dentist; and, while there is room for extended efforts in this direction, patients are encouraged to pay proper attention to their teeth. The appointment of dental surgeons should be regarded as but a preliminary step towards the institution of a staff of Visiting Specialists—a practice which we strongly advocate and which already obtains in some instances. General Amenities and Parole.—We are glad also to be able to chronicle a considerable extension of the general amenities of the patients, largely, we think, due to the discussion of many of these matters at the conference held in London under our auspices in January, 1922, and fully dealt with in the published report of the proceedings. Even if, unfortunately, there are many patients in Mental Hospitals for whom—until research has thrown more light upon the causation of their disorder—little except custodial care is possible, it is nevertheless of vital importance that everything should be done to make the lives of all patients as happy as they can be under the circumstances. One of the most important points is to convince the more sensible patients that their detention is not necessarily permanent, but that they will be discharged as soon as they can show sufficient self-control to justify their freedom. It is in this connection that leave of absence on trial is so important, a fact which appears now to be generally recognized. The marked extension of parole both outside and within the grounds, the running of some of the wards on both sides on the open-door system, allowing well behaved patients who desire to do so to stay up beyond the ordinary time for going to bed, and other privileges, small perhaps in themselves, but which indicate * Published by H.M. Stationery Office (Price 65. 6d.).