Care of the Feeble-Minded: Commission’s Recommendations Advocated in Bristol: At the Independent Labour Party Hall, King Square Avenue, last evening, Mrs. Hume Pinsent, a member the Royal Commission, appointed to consider the care and control of the feeble-minded, gave an address on the same lines as that delivered by her at the Council House February 23rd. Mr. A. E. Ellery presided over a large attendance. The CHAIRMAN said that the subject of the care of the feeble-minded was one on which many people were lamentably ignorant, but it was not altogether their fault. It was not only a sentimental question, but a business matter. Mrs. PINSENT dealt with the report of the Royal Commission on the subject of the care and control of the feeble-minded. She pointed out that the total number of mentally defective people — covering all kinds and grades — was 271,000, or just a little less than one in every 100 of the population. The great majority of these needed care, control, and support, and could never pay back the community the equivalent in any form, of the time, money, and energy which must be spent upon them. The great problem required capable and careful administration. Much of the provision for certified lunatics was expensive and unsuitable. Mrs. Pinsent next dealt with and advocated the reforms proposed by the Commission, and pointed out that the fundamental ideals in it were unity of control and the continuity of control. She drew attention to the muddle which at present existed with several bodies concerned in the subject. Everything seemed to be done, she said, to discourage a respectable working man in his endeavour to obtain the proper treatment for his feeble-minded child. She spoke of the procedure which parents had to adopt in approaching the Guardians and contended that the experience of the parents was such as to show that the Guardians were not the proper people to deal with the cases, as after being so accustomed to the work-shy and wastrel they were unable to discriminate. She dealt with the powers which the Commission recommenced should be sought under a new Act. The compulsion of parents to send a feeble-minded child to a suitable institution, when the necessary care was unobtainable, and the power of the authority to continue the control of the child in after years if desirable, were no new principles in the law of the land, but merely extensions of existing powers. Incidentally Mrs. Pinsent pointed out the great lack, at present, of proper accommodation for the cases. She explained numerous diagrams illustrating the degeneration of families from marriages between mentally defective people and pointed out the economic and humanitarian features of the case. The injury to the community by delaying the reforms was also referred to by her. The following resolution was moved the CHAIRMAN: – “That in the opinion of this meeting there is urgent need of immediate legislation on the lines recommended in the report of the Royal Commission on the care and control of the feeble minded, and that a copy of this resolution be sent to the Lord Chancellor, the Home Office, the Local Government Board, the Board of Education, the Lunacy Commissions, and to the members of Parliament for the district.” This was seconded and carried unanimously and a vote of thanks was accorded Mrs. Pinsent.
[See reference Western Daily Press: Monday 14th March 1910]
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Referenced
GRO0245 Devonport: Ellen Frances Parker: 1866 – 1949