The care of some classes of the chronic insane / by Henry P. Stearns.

  • Stearns, Henry Putnam, 1828-1905.
Date:
1881
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The care of some classes of the chronic insane / by Henry P. Stearns. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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    sane patients, except such as may be inherent in the nature of the case. There certainly exists no law compelling per- sons to send their insane relatives and friends to an asylum. They can care for them in their own homes ; they can hire their neighbors to care for them, or they can remove them to distant towns and villages, and hire them cared for there, so far as any law of the state is concerned ; or they may at any time remove their friends from asylums and have them thus cared for, thus avoiding the dread and suffering sup- posed to be incident to having them in an asylum ; but, as the case actually stands to-day, this is not done, and the vast majority of those who are able to support their insane relatives have them in asylums. Such being the case, the plan of boarding out of patients must relate to that class who neither can pay for their own support, or be paid for by friends. Now, one of the first objections to such a plan of caring for the above class of the insane which suggests itself, is that it practically does away with any efficient system of daily or weekly visits and inspection. Such a system, care- fully followed up by persons duly qualified by education and free from selfish interest, is believed to be absolutely essential to their well-being and humane care. This would be essential even in the case of persons in good health, un- less they should be provided with the requisite means of defending themselves against the many forms of injustice which might be brought to bear upon them through the selfish interests of those under whose care they might be placed. How much more would it be the case with persons all of whom are affected with some form of illness, which renders them helpless ; persons demented, depressed, or un- naturally excited! If it is found difficult in many cases to secure kind and judicious treatment of such persons in asylums, with the