Full description
On 21 February 1900 land said to have been in the possession of the Church of England at Newcastle was acquired for the purpose of constructing a Reception House at Newcastle for the insane. (1) On 23 June 1903 premises adjoining the Hospital for the Insane Newcastle were appointed to be a Reception House for the insane, in accordance with the provisions of Section 52 of the Lunacy Act, 1898. (2) Patients were first admitted to the Reception House on 13 October 1903. (3)
The purpose of the Reception House was to provide treatment for "slight attacks of short duration", enabling patients to avoid the need for certification and admission to hospital. The Reception House also detained "alcoholic cases which have developed mental symptoms", obviating the necessity of sending them to hospitals for the insane, where their presence was considered inappropriate and where they proved troublesome and difficult to manage. (4)
The Lunacy Act 1898 specified that patients could not be detained in a reception house beyond a period of 14 days, unless a medical officer certified that they were not in a fit state to be removed or would benefit from remaining. (5) Usually patients requiring treatment for periods longer than 14 days were transferred and formally admitted to other hospitals.
Specific provision for admission of voluntary patients to hospitals, licensed houses and reception houses was provided by the Lunacy (Amendment) Act 1934 (Act No 39, 1934). From 1958 provisions for admission, care, treatment, and control of mentally ill persons were provided for by the Mental Health Act 1958 (Act No 45, 1958), which intended a more therapeutic, and less custodial, role for hospitals.
By 1969 Newcastle Psychiatric Centre was in the midst of transition from a specialist centre for intellectual disability into a treatment centre for psychiatric patients, planned to operate in conjunction with the Admission Centre. Several wards of the hospital were closed with building and renovation projects planned. (6) A new integrated and enlarged Admission Area at the Newcastle Psychiatric Centre was opened and occupied by patients on 1 April 1971. (7) On 24 September 1971 under the provisions of the Mental Health Act 1958 (Act No.45, 1958) the Newcastle Admission Centre was appointed as a place for the admission and temporary treatment of mentally ill persons. (8)
The 1902 Newcastle Reception House building, then known as Kirkwood House, which formed part of James Fletcher Hospital, was demolished in 2008. (9)
Endnotes
1. NSW Government Gazette No.153, 21 February 1900, pp.1481-1482.
2. NSW Government Gazette No.322, 23 June 1903, p.4599.
3. Newcastle Psychiatric Centre, Reception House, Register of Patients, Admissions and Discharges 1903-20, (NSWSA Ref: 34/2623).
4. Inspector General of the Insane, Report for the year 1909, in Parliamentary Papers 1910, 1st Session, Vol. 1, p.473.
5. Lunacy Act, 1898 (Act No.45, 1898) s.57.
6. Director of State Psychiatric Services, Report for the year ended 30 June 1969, in Parliamentary Papers 1969-70-71, Vol. 4, p.698.
7. Director of State Psychiatric Services, Report for the year ended 30 June 1971, in Parliamentary Papers 1972-73, Vol. 4, p.622.
8. NSW Government Gazette No.106, 24 September 1971, p.3704.
9. Ann Williams, History of James Fletcher Hospital, HNE Handover for Nurses and Midwives, Vol. 2 No. 1 (2009), p.44, available from http://journals.sfu.ca/hneh/index.php/hneh/article/view/55 (accessed 13 July 2018); Ann Varelle Hardy, "... here is an Asylum open ...": constructing a culture of Government care in Australia 1801-2014. Doctor of Philosophy thesis submitted to the University of Newcastle, 2014, pp.212-213, available from https://ogma.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:14435 (accessed 13 July 2018).
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