Insanity In Scotland

Horowhenua Chronicle, 24 October 1916, Page 3

Insanity In Scotland

» FI(RST ABSOLUTE DECREASE ON RECORD. lor the first time since the institution of the General Board of Commissioners in Lunacy in 1857 the commissioners have this year to record an absolute decrease in the number of all classes of the insane in Scotland. During th year 1915 the number

of patients admitted to establishments was 3<jo7, a decrease of 142 compared with the previous year. The number admitted for the first time was 2793—493 private patients and. 2300 paupers. Voluntary patients numbered 146, compared with an average of 119 for ithe past ten years. Private patients who were discharged during the year as recovered totalled 212, and pauper patients 1146. The number of private patients who died in establishments was 232, or 35 more than in 1914, and the number of pauper patients 1574, an increase of 820. There were six fatal accidents to patients in establishments during the year, five of which were suicides.

Ob January 1 there were in Scotland 19108 insane persons, exclusive of those maintained at home by their natural guardians. Sixty-three were maintained at the expense of the State, 16,480 by parochial rates, and 2565 from private sources. The whole of the control board during the year under review was considerably affected by war conditions. For reasons of economy the operations of the Mental Deficiency Act had to be curtailed, and no expenditure upon new buildings has been undertaken since the outbreak of war. The Edinburgh and Renfrew district asylums, two of the most modern amd best-equipped mental hospitals in the country, were transferred to the War Office.

The expenditure by local authorities on the maintenance of patients during the year was £314,420, which was £9202 more than the expenditure in 1914.