NRS-21459 | Register of patients and admission book - PUD (patients under detention) [Morisset Hospital]

Full description

This volume is a register of patients, or people, under detention (PUD) treated at Morisset Hospital for the Insane, later known as Morisset Mental Hospital and Morisset Hospital. Patients classified as PUD were mentally ill prisoners who were found either unfit to be tried or not guilty by reason of mental illness, or became mentally ill while in prison. They were sent to the hospital under various sections of the Lunacy or Mental Health Acts and kept in a separate high security unit, which operated between mid-1935 and late 1990.

The register has columns for the recording of the following information relating to patients: date of previous admission; registered number; number for the year; date of admission; name; sex; age; social condition (e.g. married, single); number of children; occupation; nativity (where born); residence; religion; how sent (e.g. section of Act, transfer from another facility); form of mental disorder; supposed causes of insanity; Wassermann blood; insane relations; previous attacks; duration of existing attack; age at first attack; date of discharge; recovered, relieved, not improved or died; and time in hospital. An Observations column was used to record details of transfers and also bears the signatures of doctors.

While this volume contains some patients admitted as late as March 1965, from about June 1964 PUD patients were registered in the general series of admission books (NRS 21455). From the late 1960s, an index of patients admitted to the criminal unit (Ward 21) was maintained (NRS 21520), which provided basic information about patients and their movement. Thus, to some extent, the index is a successor to this series.