CARE OF INSANE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23166, 12 October 1938, Page 12

CARE OF INSANE

CHAINING OP PATIENTS I?j MELBOURNE PROSECUTION OBSOLETE LUNACY LAW [FBOM OUB OWN COBBKSPONDENTX . MELBOURNE. Oct. 4 Whether the shackling of mental patients by chains for their own pro. tection was a reasonable method of re» straint was one of the issues in an un« f , usual case in General Sessions, in which a jury found Sister Marion McDonald, aged 40 years, proprietress of the Hahlyn Private Hospital, Caulfield, guilty' on two charges of having taken charge of a person deemed insane and of having derived profit from that act. The jury added to its verdict a strong recommendation to mercy. Judge Fo». ter fined Sister McDonald £2 on each charge, and said that the section of' the Act under which the prosecutions were laid emphatically needed consider, ation by Parliament. < Chained to a Bed Mr. R. M. Nolan (for the Crown); said that Dr. Catarinich had found in the hospital two women patients who, ~ on examination, he decided were in-■ j y sane. One of the patients was chained by an ankle to a bed, and the other was hobbled by a chain. Sister MoDonald, when questioned by Dr. Catarinich, said that she did not accept lii patients who were certified to be inj&ne. Questioned by Mr. J. V. Barry, counsel for the defence, Dr. Catarinich said that there was nothing physically inhuman about shackling patients, but he thought it was mentally inhuman. He did not think it would perturb a patient more to be locked up in a room. He added that a new form of injection treatment for dementia praecox was now used. \ $

Dr. Catarinich said that in March last the Government mental institutions in Victoria were overcrowded and there was a long waiting list. Mr. Barry: Then, if a patient cannot get treatment in a Government inati* tution, where is the patient to get itP Dr. Catarinich: In a private bos* pital. Further questioned by Mr. Barry, Dr. Catarinich agreed that many people who might be prescribed as insane were being treated in private hospitals in Melbourne. In his opinion that practice was contrary to the Lunacy Act. Specialist on Defence

Dr. Reginald Spencer Ellery, mental and nerve specialist, said that he thought that the chains for the two patients represented an ingenious and decent way of restraining them. Most other methods of restraint would be more harmful. The same method was used in public hospitals like the Royal Melbourne Hospital and the Alfred Hospital. Two relatives of the patients said that they had no complaint to make about the treatment of their sisters. One said that she regarded the chains to be necessary for her sister's proteo? tion.

Mr. Barry, who called no evidence for the defence, said in his address to the jury that Sister McDonald had done nothing criminal, but was being prosecuted under an extremely peculiar section of the Lunacy Act. She had treated the two patients, at fees which could return her no profit, in a humane and conscientious way. - "A Curious Statute" The Lunacy Act was a curious statute in which lurked the half-baked and for« gotten section under which Sister Mo» > Donald was charged and which was directed against a state of affairs that had ceased to exist many years azo. continued Mr. Barry. The section wy meant to prevent treatment of lunar tics by putting them under the care of unauthorised persons who would treat them cruelly and disgustingly. It was never meant to cover the case of a woman conducting a registered private hospital, open for inspection, in whiA patients were under the supervision and treatment of doctors. Judge Foster told the jury that, whether the law was good or bad, ths jury had to convict if the law had been broken. After the jury had returned its verdict of guilty, Mr. Barry said that Sister McDonald, having had a convio* tion recorded against her, would probably have the registration of her hospital withdrawn. Judge Foster said that the circum« stances of the case left no blame on Sister McDonald. She had treated her patients skilfully and humanely and under the care of doctors. The suggestion that there had been anything harsh in the use of chains had been emphatically negatived.