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responsible for the maintenance of a number of soldier patients (for whose maintenance
they had accepted responsibility during the war and for twelve months
afterwards under special provision made in the Royal Warrant) on the ground
that the mental disability of these patients was not due to, or aggravated by, war
service, has met with considerable opposition from some of the Boards of Guardians
upon whom the legal responsibility for maintenance now falls. A few Boards have
refused to pay for the maintenance of the patients in question, and this refusal at
the end of March, 1924, was the subject of correspondence with the Ministry, to
whom it had been suggested that certain cases in which there seemed an element
of doubt should be reconsidered with a view to the Government continuing to pay
for their maintenance.
Alien
lunatics.
Alien Lunatics.
29. During the year ended 31st December, 1923, 129 alien patients were
admitted to London County mental hospitals, chargeable to London parishes or
unions, and as 577 were already in residence on 1st January, 1923, the total number
under treatment during the year was 706. Of these, 8 were discharged to the care
of friends for repatriation, 12 were transferred to other mental hospitals, 46 were
discharged as "recovered" or "relieved," and 38 died, leaving 602 in residence
on 31st December, 1923. The nationalities of these 602 patients were: Belgian,
14; French, 52; Italian, 52; Spanish, 5; Swiss, 18; Dutch, 13; Norwegian, 3;
Swedish, 7; German, 77; Austrian, 24; Hungarian, 7; Czech, 1; Serbian, 1;
Roumanian, 6; Bulgarian, 1; Russian and Turkish Jews, 223; Polish, 49; Turkish,
6; Armenian, 3; Syrian, 1; Greek, 4; United States of America, 16; Brazilian,
1; Argentine, 1; South American (unclassified), 1; Chinese, 9; Japanese, 1;
Portuguese, 1; Latvian, 2; unknown, 2.
Mental
After-Care
Association.
Mental After-Care Association.
30. This Association continues to give useful help in enquiries preliminary
to the discharge of patients at certain hospitals and in assistance rendered to patients
after their discharge.
Sale of work.
Permission was given during 1923, as in the previous year, for patients who
might wish to do so to co-operate in preparing for a sale of work organised by the
Association in aid of its funds.
Queen
Adelaide
fund.
Queen Adelaide Fund.
31. Full use of this private fund continues to be made for the relief of deserving
patients upon their discharge "recovered" from the mental hospitals. We had
hoped that the fund might be available for use for patients leaving the Maudsley
hospital, but the trustees of the fund did not see their way to agree to this.
The Council has re-appointed Captain Alfred O. Goodrich and Mr. Ernest Sanger
to be its representatives on the board of trustees for a further period of four years.
Patients'
clothing.
Clothing.
32. As a result of the deliberations of the special sub-committee (see Annual
Report for 1922, vol. II., p. 15), arrangements have been made for women patients'
dresses of improved patterns to be cut on wholesale lines, to stock sizes, from material
which can then be made up in the mental hospital needlerooms. This should relieve
the officer in charge of the needleroom of a great deal of laborious work hitherto
involved in cutting-out all the dresses made, and it is hoped will give more opportunity
than has hitherto been possible for individuality in trimming and other
details, and thus help to do away with the dull uniform effect so characteristic of
much of the patients' clothing in the past. The boots and shoes, which are now
being made or bought for patients of both sexes are of a much more sightly kind
than those generally provided a short time ago.