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94
Provision of
care and
treatment
for the mentally
ill
MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES
Lunacy and Mental Treatment Acts, 1890.1930
A staff of fifteen mental welfare officers and five assistants, under the supervision
of a senior mental welfare officer, operating centrally from the County Hall, continued
to carry out the work of taking initial steps to provide care and treatment for persons
suffering from mental illness. The difficulties caused by the shortage of accommodation
in observation wards, particularly for female patients, continued and many
patients had to be admitted direct to mental hospitals from their own homes under
sections 14 and 16 of the Lunacy Act, 1890, or on urgency orders under section 11 of
that Act, instead of being admitted first to an observation ward as envisaged in the
Council's scheme under section 51 of the National Health Service Act, 1946. The
proposal to decentralise the work had to be further postponed, principally for manpower
reasons as decentralisation would require additional staff.

* Of these 9 male and 110 female patients were certified and removed to mental hospitals.
† Of these 6 male and 8 female patients were certified and removed to mental hospitals.