Report / Royal Commission on the Law Relating to Mental Illness and Mental Deficiency 1954-1957.

  • Great Britain. Royal Commission on the Law Relating to Mental Illness and Mental Deficiency 1954-1957.
Date:
1957
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report / Royal Commission on the Law Relating to Mental Illness and Mental Deficiency 1954-1957. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    SUMMARY OF MAIN CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS Generali attitude to menial disorder and to certification (Parts I, If and IV) (Chapters 1, 2 and 4) 5. Disorders of the mind are illnesses which need medical treatment. Great progress has been made during the present century in developing methods of treatment for many forms of mental disorder Even when the disorder cannot be completely cured, it is often possible for the patient to live a happy and useful life in spite of some continuing mental weakness. This is now recognised by many of the general public as well as by those who are directly concerned with the care of patients, and most people are coming to regard mental illness and disability in much the same way as physical illness and disability. 6. Some of the laws which still govern the conditions under which mentally disordered patients may receive care? in hospital or elsewhere were passed at a time when it was assumed that such patients must be detained under custody while receiving treatment. Although mental hospitals? are now allowed to admit voluntary patients, these patients must be well enough to sign an application form expressing a positive wish to receive treatment. All other patients in mental hospitals, and almost all patients in mental deficiency hospitals,? are admitted by using procedures which authorise their detention. The main procedures which authorise detention are commonly known as certification. Many people think that only patients who are permanently deranged or dangerous are “bad enough” to be certified, and that certification carries with it some social or moral stigma. But some patients for whom the present law requires these procedures to be used are expected to respond to treatment quickly and perhaps completely, and from the medical point of view there is often no difference between their illness and the illness of voluntary patients. In some cases treatment could quite well be given without powers of detention if the law allowed mental and mental deficiency hospitals (like all other hospitals) to admit patients informally without requiring a written application from the patient. In some cases however the patients’ judgment may be affected by their disorder so that they do not appreciate their need for care, and they may be positively unwilling to receive it. Some may be dangerous to themselves or others, or may be incapable of protecting themselves. If proper care is to be provided for such patients, it can only be done by using compulsory powers. (Chapter 2, paragraphs 135-6, and Chapters 5 and 6) 7. ‘We recommend that the law should be altered so that whenever possible suitable care may be provided for mentally disordered patients with no more restriction of liberty or legal formality than is applied to people who need 1 We use the term “‘ mental disorder ’’ as a general term for all forms of mental ill-health ~ —see paragraph 74. 2 We use the word “ care” to include any form of treatment, training, education, super- vision, social support, help and advice. 3 The term ‘‘ mental hospital ” officially replaced the old term ‘‘ asylum ” in 1930 and is applied to hospitals in the national health service which provide treatment for mental illness ‘and which have been ‘“‘ designated ’’ as mental hospitals under the Lunacy and Mental Treat- ment Acts. The term used in the Mental Deficiency Acts is “ institution for defectives ”’, but as nearly all such institutions are now hospitals within the national health service we usually refer to them as mental deficiency hospitals. | When we wish to refer to all hospitals which specialise in the treatment of mental disorder, including those which have not been *“* designated ’’, we use the term “‘ psychiatric hospitals ”’.