Chap. 54.——An ACT to amend and re-enact Sections 1019 as amended, 1023, 1035-a,
and 1077 as amended, of the Code of Virginia, relating to hospitals for and
care of the insane, epileptic, feebleminded and inebriate. [S B 68}

Approved February 27, 1946

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

1. That sections ten hundred nineteen as amended, ten hundred
twenty-three, ten hundred thirty-five-a, and ten hundred seventy-seven
as amended, be amended and re-enacted, as follows:

Section 1019. Record of commitment proceedings.—That part of
the record of proceedings under this chapter for the commitment of in-
sane, epileptic, inebriate and feeble-minded persons, consisting of the war-
rant of arrest and application therefor, the medical certificate and the or-
der of commitment shall be made in duplicate, one copy of which shall
be transmitted by the judge or justice to the superintendent of the hos-
pital or colony to which admission is sought, and the other copy filed
within five days in the office of the clerk of the circuit court of the county
or of the corporation court of the city who shall record same in a book
to be kept for the purpose either by copying into such book the principal
facts of such record of proceedings including the name of the person
committed, the names of the members of the commission, the findings of
the commission, the disposition made of the case and the date thereof or
by inserting the papers themselves in a properly prepared loose-leaf
binder book. Such book shall be supplied by the county or city, shall be
kept properly indexed by the clerk and shall be known as the “record
book of insane, epileptic, inebriate and feeble-minded persons”.

That part of the record of proceedings under this chapter for the
commitment of such persons consisting of the interrogatories and answers
thereto, containing the details of the patient’s medical history shall not be
filed in the clerk’s office with the other records but shall be transmitted
directly to the superintendent of the hospital or colony to which ad-
mission is sought, together with the copy of the warrant of arrest and
application therefor, the medical certificate and the order of commit-
ment as aforesaid. |

Section 1023. What Commissioner of Mental Hygiene and Hos-
pitals to do when person is confined in jail six days; when hospitals are
crowded.—If the superintendent of a hospital or colony fails to send for
and convey to his hospital or colony any insane, epileptic, feeble-minded
or inebriate person confined in jail within six days after the commit-
ment of such person to jail, the sheriff or sergeant shall notify the Com-
missioner of Mental Hygiene and Hospitals by telephone or telegraph or
other prompt means whereupon the Commissioner shall forthwith order
the sheriff or sergeant in whose custody such person is held to convey
him to some hospital, designating in his order the hospital or colony to
which such person shall be taken. It shall be the duty of such sheriff
or sergeant to obey such order at once, and the superintendent of such
hospital or colony shall receive and care for such person.

If any hospital or colony has become so crowded that it is impossi-
ble to accommodate more such persons therein, thereupon the Commis:
sioner shall give notice of the fact to all sheriffs and sergeants, and shall
designate the hospitals to which they shall make application for the ad-
mission of such persons; but he shall at all times so arrange that such
persons confined in jail shall be removed to a hospital or colony within
ten days if practicable.

Section 1035-a: Admission of persons suspected of being insane,
epileptic, or feeble-minded to State hospitals or colonies for observation.—
The judge of any circuit or corporation court, any trial justice or justice of
the peace, upon written request of any respectable citizen accompanied
by the certification of a duly licensed physician, who shall if practicable
be the person’s family physician, upon forms prescribed by the State
Hospital Board, commit to any State hospital or colony for observation
as to his mental condition, any suitable person who is a legal resident of
the State and not an inebriate or drug addict. A person thus committed
shall not be detained in the hospital or colony more than forty-five days,
unless he makes application for further care and treatment as a volun-
tary patient subject to the provisions of section one thousand thirty-one,
or is committed as provided in the succeeding section. For services in
connection with this commitment the same fees shall be paid, to the same
persons, from the same source, and in like manner as provided by law
in cases of regular commitments.

Section 1077. Who to be received in the State colonies for epilep-
tics and feeble-minded ; employment, training of patients, education, et
cetera.—The superintendent of the Lynchburg State Colony shall receive
and care for such epileptic, and such feeble-minded white persons, male
and female, when facilities are available, to whom such training would
be of most benefit, who are legal residents of Virginia, as under the laws
of the State are committed to such colony, provided that in committing
persons to the colony and in receiving them therein those indigent white
persons who would be most likely to receive benefit from colony care
and training shall be first received and admitted. In order to promote
the objects for which the colony was established, for the protection of so-
ciety and feeble-minded and epileptic persons themselves, and that those
who are capable of being trained for self-support may eventually leave the
institution and enjoy the life and liberty of the outer world, the superin-
tendent thereof and the State Hospital Board shall, as far as practicable,
provide suitable employment for such patients and such training, both
educational and industrial, as is adapted to their capacities, and shall see
that such moral, medical and surgical treatment as they deem proper
shall be given such patients in order to promote the objects for which
the institution is provided. The State Hospital Board and superinten-
dent shall, as far as practicable, provide necessary school and industrial
buildings and employ such teachers as are necessary for these purposes.
Until separate buildings for feeble-minded males are provided, the super-
intendent may receive and care for, with white epileptic males, such
white feeble-minded male patients as, for urgent and distressing reasons,
require custodial care and treatment. It shall be unlawful for any colony
to receive and care for, with feeble-minded patients, any idiot as defined
by section ten hundred seventy-five. However, at those colonies where
provision, by way of a building or buildings, has been made for the re-
ception and care of idiots, they, when duly committed according to the
provisions of law as to the commitment of the feeble-minded, and re-
gardless of their age, shall be received, segregated and cared for therein,
apart from the feeble-minded population of any such colony, or colonies ;
and among the idiot population of any such colony or colonies, the sexes
shall be kept separate and apart. It is further provided that it shall be
lawful to transfer from the department of epileptics and feeble-minded in
any colony or colonies patients, whether epileptic or feeble-minded, who,
from mental deterioration, have reached the practical state of idiocy, to be
cared for in such building, or buildings. The children of school age
within the population of such colony shall be enumerated in the school
census of the district and county in which the colony is located, as a part
of the school population of the Commonwealth, and annually the colony
shall be entitled to receive from the State Board of Education an appro-
priation for the support of said school, based on its population such as is
made to the Virginia Industrial School at Bon Air, and like institutions.