A Psychiatric Milestone: Bloomingdale Hospital Centenary, 1821-1921
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A Psychiatric Milestone: Bloomingdale Hospital Centenary, 1821-1921
Bloomingdale Asylum for the Insane; Mental illness
4th. The common attendants shall not apply any extraordinary coercion by
way of punishment, or change in any degree the mode of treatment
prescribed by the physician; on the contrary, it is considered as their
indispensable duty, to seek by acts of kindness the good opinion of the
patients, so as to govern them by the influence of esteem rather than of
severity.
5th. On the first day of the week, the Superintendent, or the principal
keeper of the Asylum, shall collect as many of the patients as may
appear to them suitable, and read some chapters in the Bible.
6th. When it is deemed necessary to apply the strait-jacket, or any
other mode of coercion, by way of punishment or restraint, such an ample
force should be employed as will preclude the idea of resistance from
entering the mind of the patient.
7th. It shall be the duty of the deputy-keeper, immediately on a patient
being admitted, to obtain his name, age, where born, what has been his
employment or occupation, his general disposition and habits, when first
attacked with mania; if it has been violent or otherwise, the cause of
his disease, if occasioned by religious melancholy, or a fondness for
ardent spirits, if owing to an injury received on any part of the body,
or supposed to arise from any other known cause, hereditary or
adventitious, and the name of the physician who may have attended him,
and his manner of treating the patient while under his direction.
8th. Such of the patients as may be selected by the physician, or the
Committee of the Asylum, shall be occasionally taken out to walk or ride
under the care of the deputy-keeper; and it shall be also his duty to
employ the patients in such manner, and to provide them with such kinds
of amusements and books as may be approved and directed by the
Committee.
9th. The female keeper shall endeavour to have the female patients
Constantly employed at suitable work; to provide proper amusements,
books, etc., to take them out to walk as may be directed by the
Committee.
10th. It shall be the indispensable duty of the keepers, to have all the
patients as clean as possible in their persons, and to preserve great
order and decorum when they sit down to their respective meals.
11th. It shall be the duty of the physician to keep a book, in which
shall be entered an historical account of each patient, stating his
situation, and the medical and moral treatment used; which book shall be
laid before the Committee, at their weekly meetings.
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