Public Record Office Victoria  
Home Contact Us Site Map
 
Series VPRS 8236
Register of Patients
About this Series Related Series Accessing the records in this Series
Date Range: Series 1877 - 1970
  Series in Custody 1877 - 1970
  Contents 1877 - 1970
Public Access: Part Open
Location: North Melbourne
Format of Records: Physical
 
Agency which created this SeriesAgency which created this Series
Display entries per page
Date Range Agency Title Agency Number
1877 - 1879 Ballarat (Asylum 1877-1879; 1893-1905; Hospital for the Insane 1905-1934; Mental Hospital 1934-ct) VA 2844
1879 - 1970 Sunbury (Asylum 1879-1905; Hospital for the Insane 1905-1934; Mental Hospital 1934-1962; Mental Hospital/Training Centre 1962-1985; Training Centre 1985-ct.) VA 2843
Agency currently responsible for this SeriesAgency currently responsible for this Series
Display entries per page
Date Range Agency Title Agency Number
1992 - 1996 Department of Health and Community Services VA 3092
2002 - cont Department of Human Services VA 3970
Description of this SeriesDescription of this Series
  • How to use the Records
    This series has been digitised and is available online. Access to the digitised records is available via the physical records details pages.

    Consult the Consignment Details List and order in the volume covering the time period of interest. Each volume of these registers contains an index by patient name which gives a reference to the number of the page of that volume upon which the patient's entry will be found. Locate the patient name of interest and turn to the page number indicated.

  • Function / Content
    From at least 1845 and the proclamation of An Act for the Regulation of the Care and Treatment of Lunatics (8 & 9 Vic c.100), public asylums and licensed houses were required to maintain a Register of Patients. Initially the register maintained by licensed houses was officially known as the Book of Admissions. In some institutions the Register was also known as an Admissions Register or as an Admission and Discharge Register and these terms were sometimes stamped on the volumes.

    Immediately upon the admission of a person to an asylum, the clerk of the asylum was required to make an entry in the Register of Patients. Details recorded included:

    -patient's name
    - date of admission
    - admission number
    - date of last previous admission
    - age
    - marital status
    - occupation
    - previous place of abode
    - religion, and
    - once examined by a medical officer, the form of mental disorder and state of physical health.

    Further details were entered in the register on the death, transfer or discharge of a patient. Institutions were also required to maintain a separate Register of Discharges, Removals and Deaths, usually known as a Discharge Register.

    The format of the Register of Patients which was specified in a schedule to the Lunacy Statute and succeeding legislation, changed little until the proclamation of the Mental Health Act 1959 in 1962.

    The record then became officially known as the Register of Patients and Discharge Register and included information about the types of admission. The following five types of admission were specified under sections 41 to 49 of the Mental Health Act 1959.

    - Voluntary Boarders (V) were those who entered the hospital at their own request or, if under the age of 16 at the request of a parent or guardian and on the opinion of a medical practitioner.

    - Recommended (R) and Approved (A) Patients. A person could be admitted upon the recommendation set out in a prescribed form, of a medical practitioner who had examined the person. As soon as possible after admission the superintendent of the hospital was required to examine the patient and either approve the recommended admission or discharge the patient.

    - Judicial Admissions (J). Upon information provided on oath before a justice that a mentally ill person was not receiving proper care, or could not support himself/herself or had committed an offence, and after examination by two medical practitioners, an order could be made for the person to be admitted to or detained in a mental hospital.

    - Security Patients (S) were those who had been detained in a gaol but were transferred to a mental hospital upon being determined to be mentally ill.

    The post 1962 Registers of Patients also included information previously recorded in a separate Discharge Register, e.g. institution to which the patient was transferred; assigned cause of death where applicable. However some institutions continued to maintain a separate Discharge Register.

    Sunbury Register of Patients

    These volumes were created to record the admission of patients to the Sunbury Lunatic Asylum between 1877 and 1970. The Register lists patients chronologically by date of admission, with each patient's admission number recorded against their name. A separate series of numbers were maintained for men and women.

    The admission numbers were recorded on the warrants issued on the admission of a patient to a lunatic asylum. The actual warrants can be found in VPRS 8259 (Male Patients) and VPRS 8261 (Female Patients).

    An alphabetical index is extant in the front of each volume. From 1934 the indexes are not part of the bound volume, but rather are a separate book attached to the frontispiece of the volume. The register and its indexes can be used to gain access to the patient histories in the Case Books which are arranged chronologically by date of admission: VPRS 7405 (Male Patients) and VPRS 7406 (Female Patients).

    The first 44 pages of the first unit of this series list patients admitted to the Ballarat Asylum (VA 2843) between 1877 and 1880 and who were subsequently transferred to Sunbury. The numbering sequence was recommenced again when the volume was taken to Sunbury. It is the Sunbury numerical sequence which is recorded on the spine of this volume.

    While the discharge details were always included in the `Admission Registers', in 1963 the title given to the volumes was changed to `Admission and Discharge Register' to confirm a practice which had been followed previously. A separate series of Discharge Registers was also created between 1877 and 1970 (VPRS 8237).

    The new admission numbering system which distinguished five categories of admission commenced in the first of the `Admission and Discharge Registers'. However there continued to be two separate sequences for males and females. Prior to 1963 the admission of Voluntary Boarders was recorded in separate Registers: VPRS 8238 - Voluntary Boarders Register.

  • Recordkeeping System
    Volumes were arranged chronologically by date of admission. The date range of each volume was noted on the spine of the volume.
More research resourcesMore research resources
    PROVguide059 Mental Health Records
Indexes and RegistersIndexes and Registers
Display entries per page
Date Range Series Title Series Number
Controlled SeriesControlled Series
Display entries per page
Date Range Series Title Series Number
1879 - 1970 Admission Warrants - Male Patients VPRS 8259
1879 - 1970 Admission Warrants - Female Patients VPRS 8261
Previous SeriesPrevious Series
Display entries per page
Transfer Date Series Title Series Number
- 1962 Voluntary Boarders Register VPRS 8238
Subsequent SeriesSubsequent Series
Display entries per page
Transfer Date Series Title Series Number
List/s of records in this seriesList/s of records in this series
Display entries per page
Consignment Number Contents Date Range Public Access No. of Units
P0001 1877 - 1970 Part Open 14
Indexes and RegistersIndexes and Registers
Display entries per page
Date Range Series Title Series Number
More research resourcesMore research resources
    PROVguide059 Mental Health Records

More Help
Help On This Page

A series is a group of records which are recorded or maintained by the same agency (or agencies)

Series information helps you to understand the context of records - why, when and by whom they were created.

To locate records use the "Accessing the records" tab.

More about series details pages

   
© Copyright 2005   Government of Victoria   Disclaimer    Accessibility   Privacy   Contact Us