An Act to Repeal the Lunacy and mental Treatment Acts 1890 to 1930, and the Mental Deficiency Acts 1913 to 1938, and to make fresh provisions with respect to the treatment and care of mentally disordered persons and with respect to their property and affairs, and for purposes connected with matters aforesaid.
Citation
7 & 8 Eliz. 2. c. 72
Dates
Royal assent
29 July 1959
Commencement
1 November 1960
Other legislation
Repeals/revokes
Court of Chancery Act 1852
Criminal Lunatic Asylums Act 1860
Criminal Lunatics Act 1884
Lunacy (Vacating of Seats) Act 1886
Lunacy Act 1890
Lunacy Act 1891
Lunacy Act 1908
Mental Deficiency Act 1913
Lunacy Act 1922
Mental Deficiency (Amendment) Act 1925
Mental Deficiency Act 1927
Mental Treatment Act 1930
Mental Deficiency Act 1938
Yarmouth Naval Hospital Transfer Act 1957
Amended by
Mental Health Act 1983
Status: Partially repealed
Text of statute as originally enacted
The Mental Health Act 1959 (7 & 8 Eliz. 2. c. 72) was an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom concerning England and Wales which had, as its main objectives, to abolish the distinction between psychiatric hospitals and other types of hospitals and to deinstituitionalise mental health patients and see them treated more by community care.[1]
It also defined the term mental disorder for the first time: "mental illness as distinct from learning disability. The definition was “mental illness; arrest or incomplete development of mind; psychopathic disorder; and any other disorder or disability of mind”.[2]
At the time, 0.4% of the population of England were housed in asylums, receiving the standard treatments of the time.[3] Their treatment was considered by the 1957 Percy Commission and the act resulted from its deliberations. The act was designed to make:
treatment voluntary and informal;
and where compulsory give it a proper legal framework and made as a medical decision;
and to move treatment, where possible, away from institutional care to that in the community.[4]
The Act repealed the Lunacy and Mental Treatment Acts 1890 to 1930 and the Mental Deficiency Acts 1913 to 1938.[5]
One of the changes introduced by the Act was the abolishment of the category of "moral imbecile".[6] The category, which had been introduced in the 1913 Act, had been defined in such vague terms that it had allowed mothers of illegitimate children, especially in case of repeated births out of wedlock, to be regarded as "moral imbeciles" and thus to be placed in an institution for defectives or to be placed under guardianship.[7]
The 1959 version was repealed after the Mental Health Act 1983 was approved.
^""The Origins of Community Care"". BBC News. 13 October 1999.
^"History of legislation on disability". Rescare.
^A brief history of specialist mental health services, S Lawton-Smith and A McCulloch, Mental Health Foundation, "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 April 2015. Retrieved 26 December 2014.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
^"Ministry of Health: Mental Health Act 1959 General Policy, Registered Files (95,200 Series)". The National Archives.
^Power, Andrew (2016). "4. Carers policy in England". Landscapes of Care: Comparative Perspectives on Family Caregiving. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge. p. 63. ISBN 978-0-7546-7950-9.
^Mary P. Lindsey (11 March 2002). Dictionary of Mental Handicap. Routledge. p. 208. ISBN 978-1-134-97199-2.
^Higginbotham, Peter (31 March 2012). The Workhouse Encyclopedia. History Press Limited. p. 169. ISBN 978-0-7524-7719-0.
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