Children and The Lunacy Act of 1845
When the Lunacy Act was passed in 1845, there were many questions raised about what to do with the children that were not in good mental health. Insane children were more common than most people know. The confusion on what to do with them was because the Act gave no age limits on who was to be admitted into the asylums.
Part of the inspections that took place and were conducted by the Lunacy Commission involved inspecting workhouses for patients that could be removed from the workhouses and placed in institutions. The Commission would often find mentally unhealthy children and push for them to be removed from the workhouses. However, many of the institutions were hesitant to take in the children seeing as they believed they served a threat in the way their institution was to be run. Because of this, many children were admitted, under the guise that they were in desperate need of help and served a serious danger to themselves and others.
The asylums of the day, while typically filled with poor lunatics or criminally insane persons, were meant to be asylums in the true sense of the word. They were to be a place were those who were paupers or mentally could go and find solace and safety and get away from the harsh work conditions of the workhouses. Many of these children were only looking for just that, somewhere to go and find safety. Therefore, admitting them under such false pretenses, that they are a serious danger to themselves and others was causing them receive improper treatment.
Read more about this topic: Lunacy Act 1845
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