Register of restraint and seclusion, London, England, 1948
Psychiatric hospital staff recorded which patients had been physically restrained or kept in seclusion, and for what reasons. This empty register is probably a spare copy. Details noted were the means and duration of restraint, the name and sex of the patient, and whether they were a temporary or certified patient. The register outlines the Lunacy Act of 1830. This introduced government oversight of private asylums to prevent some of the worst abuses. It includes the regular amendments issued throughout the first half of the 1900s. This reminded hospital staff how far psychiatric institutions had improved since the early 1800s. It reinforced the fact excessive unjustified use of restraints and extended periods of seclusion were illegal. The first significant drug treatments appeared in mental hospitals in the mid-1950s. Restraint and seclusion were lessened, but never eliminated.
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Glossary: psychiatric hospital
Psychiatric hospital specialising in the treatment of serious mental illness, usually for relatively long-term patients.
A historic term for a psychiatric hospital. The term in this context was common in the 1700s and 1800s, but is no longer in use.