VPRS 18429 Register of Boarded Out Patients

This series comprises of registers of Boarded Out Patients of the Ballarat Mental Hospital (VA 2844).Under section 95 of the Lunacy Act 1890 (No.1113), the Governor-in-Council could make regulations for the boarding out of patients. The regulations stated that the same person could not receive both male and female patients and prescribed other matters such as the class of person to whom patients might be boarded out; the type of accommodation and the distance from the hospital; the permissible occupations of the patient; the hours to be kept by the patient; the degree of liberty of a patient whilst boarded out and the dietary requirements to be provided for the patient.Under section 96 of the Act, the Inspector or Superintendent of any receiving house or asylum was required to certify in writing that any patient boarded out was harmless and not a danger to himself or others.Most of the patients that appear in this register were boarded out to the Queen Elizabeth Home, Ballarat (previously the Benevolent Home). There was an Agreement (dated 17 June 1941) between the Treasurer, State of Victoria and The Ballarat District Benevolent Home, to accommodate up to 100 patients boarded out from mental hospitals. The Agreement was for the erection of a hospital and for the cost of maintenance of each patient.There is a letter (dated 3rd July, 1946) inside the cover of the first register stating that the Ballarat District Benevolent Home had been changed to The Queen Elizabeth Benevolent Home. It became the Queen Elizabeth Geriatric Centre sometime before 1960, and later the Queen Elizabeth Centre.The Register of Boarded Out Patients records the following:- name of the patient- gender- date of admission- date boarded out- classification, whether "Walking" or "Bed"- date on which the person returned or died or was discharged- name of guardian.