VPRS 18174 Admission and Discharge Register of Patients (Sunbury and Caloola Training Centres)

Full description

This series consists of volumes which record summary information on the admission and discharge of patients at the Sunbury Training Centre (1962 - 1985) and Caloola Training Centre (1985 - 1992) (VA 2843). Under the Mental Health Act 1959, Training Centres provided treatment for the intellectually defective.

The Sunbury Training Centre was opened on 1 November 1962, and the first 500 entries (241 x Male and 259 x Female) in Register 1 are made on this date, before the first entry for 2 November 1962 appears. Each admission was given a unique sequential number (by gender).

The registers list admissions chronologically, and detail the following information (column headings):

- Type of Admission (V, R, A, J, S)
- No. in Order of Admission (by gender) (sequential number)
- Date of Admission
- Full Name
- Secretary's Signature
- Date of Birth
- Marital State
- Occupation
- Previous Place of Abode
- Religion
- Form of Mental Disorder
- Bodily Condition
- Superintendent's Signature
- Date of Death, Discharge, &c.
- Secretary's Signature
- Discharge Category
- Where Discharged To
- Assigned Cause of Death
- Who Present at Death

The register distinguishes between five types of admission which were set out under sections 41 to 49 of the Mental Health Act 1959:

V Voluntary Boarders were those who entered the hospital at their own request or, if under the age of 16 at the request of a parent or guardian and on the opinion of a medical practitioner.

R, A Recommended and Approved Patients. A person could be admitted upon the recommendations set out in a prescribed form, of a medical practitioner who had examined the person. As soon as possible after admission the superintendent of the hospital was required to examine the patient and either approve the recommended admission or discharge the patient.

J Judicial Admissions. Upon information provided on oath before a justice that a mentally ill person was not receiving proper case, or could not support himself/herself or had committed an offence, and after examination by two medical practitioners, and order could be made for the person to be admitted to or detained in a mental hospital.

S Security Patients were those who had been detained in a gaol but were transferred to a mental hospital upon being determined to be mentally ill.

The first register contains some loose papers inside the front cover which pertain to the gazettal and proclamation of the training centre under the Mental Health Act 1959.