Care of the Feeble-Minded: Royal Commissioner’s Address: New Act Suggested: Interesting Comments & Discussion: An exhaustive address on “The care control of feeble minded” was given by Mrs. Hume Pinsent at the Council Chamber Cambridge on Saturday afternoon. Mrs. Pinsent is one of the leading authorities on this subject, and besides being Chairman of Special Schools Sub-Committee of the Birmingham Education Committee, she was member of the Royal Commission on the Care and Control of the Feeble Minded and, was so able to deal with first-hand knowledge of the recommendations of the Commission. The mayor (Mr. W. P. Spalding) presided and amongst present were Sir T. Clifford Allbutt, Prof. Bateson, Prof. Inge, Prof. Howard Marsh, Dr. Wingate, Mr. Darwin, Mr. E. H. Parker, and Mr. Turner (superintendent of the Eastern Counties Asylum at Colchester). The Chairman said the subject on which Mrs. Pinsent was about to speak, was, by no means, a new one to many of them. Many people were interested in the welfare and treatment of feeble minded people and he hoped they did some little good in the district in helping some of the feeble minded in that admirable institution at Colchester. The question upon which Mrs. Pinsent was to speak was the Royal Commission which had been held on the subject, and it seemed to him a subject deserving the most careful consideration. The main recommendation of the Commission, he supposed, was that the care of the feeble minded should be undertaken by a committee of the County Council, subject to a board of Control. Undoubtedly it was a great responsibility that the feeble minded should be taken charge of, but how a new system was to be brought into operation without injuring the voluntary system which at present existed was to his mind a question of extreme difficulty. But they must not forget the chief thing to be considered was the lives of the feeble minded and if the voluntary institutions were not able to provide for all the feeble minded in any given district it stood to reason that they ought not to allow the evil to exist: The Chairman announced letters of regret inability to attend from Bishop of Ely Canon Stanton and Mr. Butcher M.P.: Mrs. Pinsent commenced by pointing out that number of mentally defective persons in England and Wales, apart from certified lunatics, was estimated 149,628 or .46 of the population. Of these 66,509 were estimated to be urgently in need of provision either in their own interest or for the public safety. Only such cases were included as were, in the opinion of the investigators improperly, unsuitably, or unkindly cared for, or who, by reason of particular habits and characteristics, were a source of danger to the community in which they lived. The total number of mentally defective persons including certified lunatics, might be estimated at 271,607 or .83 per cent. of the population. The great majority of these 270,000 were not only a burden on the resources of this generation but were producing children who in turn would have to be supported and cared for at the expense of the next generation. The Commissioners in their report said: “There are numbers of mentally defective persons whose training is neglected over whom no sufficient control is exercised and whose wayward and irresponsible lives are productive crime and misery, injury and mischief to themselves and to others, and of much continuous expenditure wasteful to the community and to individual families. We find local ‘permissive’ systems of public education are available here and there for a limited section mentally defective children, and which, even if it be useful during the years of training, is supplemented by no subsequent supervision and control, and is in consequence often misdirected and unserviceable. We find large numbers of persons who are committed to prisons for repeated offences which, being the manifestations of a permanent defect of mind that there is no hope of repressing, much less of stopping, by short punitive sentences. We find lunatic asylums crowded with patients who do not require the careful hospital treatment that well-equipped asylums now afford, and who might be treated in other ways more economically and efficiently. We find, also, at large in the population mentally defective persons, adults, young persons, and children, who are some in one way and some in another, incapable of self control, and who are, therefore exposed to constant moral danger themselves, and brome the source of lasting injury to the community. That was the picture the Commissioners had drawn for them, and to remedy that state of affairs they suggested a new Act for the care and control of the mentally defective. A full explanation of the Act was impossible, and she would therefore only deal with its fundamental provisions. Her first point would be the unity of control. The Commissioners recommended that there should be one single authority to supervise and regulate all provisions made for the accommodation, maintenance, care, treatment, education, training, and control of the mentally defective and that this central authority should be called the Board of Control. In order to carry this out they suggested there should be a new Act, and this new Act should contain all the necessary provisions of the Lunacy and Idiots Act combined with any additional statutory powers necessary to extend the protection afforded by those Act to all degrees of mental defect, and also to bring a complete scheme for their care and control into operation. The principle was that which was already adopted in the Lunacy and Idiots’ Act that those who by reason of mental defect could not take part in the struggle of life should be afforded State protection suited to their needs. That principle was proposed to extend to all grades of mental defect. Many mentally defective persons were dealt with as paupers or criminals but there was at present no means of dealing with them primarily as mentally defective. It was thus necessary to know who and where the mentally-defective were. She believed that in Cambridge there were no special schools, and they therefore did not know how many defectives they had or what kind of care and control they would need in the future. If they had adopted the Epileptic Act they would know these things, and they would also know how defective the Act was. It was further suggested, said Mrs. Pinsent, that the present Lunacy Commission, enlarged and strengthened, should constitute the Board of Control, that England and Wales should be divided into at least eight suitable districts, and that an Assistant District Commissioner should be appointed to each district. It was in local efforts to train and control the mentally defective that the need for one single authority was most urgently felt. It was shown by the evidence that the mentally defective were perpetually coming into contact with different local authorities and were permanently cared for by none. This condition of things clearly indicated the need for one authority exercising continuous control, and the Commission had therefore to consider which local authority would be the most suitable. The Commissioners, after much careful consideration, decided that the Education Authority and the Poor Law were not suitable, but that by following the precedent of the Lunacy Acts all the mentally defective could be dealt with under the same authority. The Commissioners recommended that the local authorities should be the council of each county and county borough, and that they should be required by statute to make suitable and sufficient provision for the mentally defective. It was further suggested that they should exercise the powers which it was proposed to confer on them through a statutory committee which should be called the committee for the care of the mentally defective and should take over the duties of the Visiting Committee, or what was sometimes called the Asylums Committee of the County Council. They further recommended that the statutory committees should co-opt additional members of special experience of whom one at least should a woman, and that a medical officer should be appointed by the County Council to assist the committee for the care of the mentally-defective, This brought her to her second point, the continuity of control for the Commission recommended that, subject certain safeguards, in cases not under suitable parental or other control, the committee might resolve that until the child reached the age of 21 all the powers and rights of the parent should be in the committee. When the age of 21 years was reached, it was recommended that the committee should report to the Board of Control as to their condition who would decide what further steps should be taken view the continuance of such persons care and control. Mrs. Pinsent further urged the segregation of the defective as the chief means to prevent birth of mentally- defectives. … DISCUSSION: … Some of those present then contributed their views. Professor Bateson expressed appreciation of Mrs. Pinsent’s most masterly address. A most difficult question had, he thought, been dealt with in a way likely to lead to real and profitable results in the future. … … (continues in a like manner) … …
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Referenced
GRO0245 Devonport: Ellen Frances Parker: 1866 – 1949