Mental Illness

Extract

Our conception of mental illness has undergone a great change during the last half-century and many old misconceptions have been discarded. Lunacy, a purely legal term, which corresponds to no medical diagnosis, has slipped into the background and mental illness is recognised as a wide range of conditions of varying seriousness about which there is a growing body of knowledge and for which, to an increasing extent, appropriate treatment can be given.

The effect of this change is striking. Early in the century the only recognised provision for mental illness was to be found in hospitals known as lunatic asylums, which were administered under the 1890 Lunacy Act. These hospitals were designed for and restricted to persons who, owing to their mental condition, were incapabe of managing their own affairs and who, for their own safety or that of others, needed to be placed under care and treatment. Treatment was legally provided for, but in practice the emphasis was on care and protection, and since admission to hospital meant the deprivation of the patient’s liberty it followed naturally that elaborate provision was made for the prevention of abuse. It followed equally naturally that relatives and friends were reluctant to invoke the Act. The result was that the only hospitals able to provide resident treatment were closed to many who would gladly have taken advantage of it, and the Lunacy Act became only too often a barrier to treatment.