CHAPTER 681

An Act to provide a mobile psychiatric clinic for children and youths who
are wards of the State.
[H 681]

Approved April 7, 1954
Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

1. §1. The Medical College of Virginia is directed to establish and
maintain a mobile psychiatric clinic to provide the services and perform
the functions hereinafter set forth for children who have been committed
to the Department of Welfare and Institutions and are being held at any
institution maintained by such department in the city of Richmond or
adjoining counties and at the training schools maintained by such
department.

§ 2. The governing board of the Medical College of Virginia, herein-
after referred to as the board, shall direct the purchase of such supplies,
equipment, and motor vehicles as are necessary to carry out the provisions
of this chapter.

§ 3. The board shall employ as Director, a psychiatrist who is
certified by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology and other
persons skilled in the diagnosis and treatment of physical and mental
diseases of children, and such other medical, technical and clinical per-
sonnel as may be desirable for this mobile clinic. The board may remove
or discharge for cause any persons so employed and may reassign persons
so assigned.

§ 4. The Department of Health, the Department of Mental Hygiene
and Hospitals, and the Department of Welfare and Institutions shall
cooperate and advise with the board or its staff in the performance of
the duties imposed by this chapter in connection with this mobile clinic.

The Board and the Department of Welfare and Institutions
shall schedule visits by such clinic at regular intervals to the institutions
mentioned in section one.

. The personnel of the clinic when visiting each of the various
institutions shall conduct thorough examinations of each child at the
institution, not theretofore examined by the clinic, and other children at
the institution for whom such examination is indicated, for the purpose
of determining, diagnosing and treating physical and mental ailments or
impairments, with a view to improving the general health of such children
and hastening their rehabilitation.

§ 7. The clinical services herein established shall also include pro-
visions for teaching of students of the Medical College of Virginia, and
shall constitute recognized opportunities for research, to the end that the
clinic services may contribute to a proper increase in better prepared per-
sonnel, an increase in knowledge of the causes of juvenile delinquency,
and more effective treatment and rehabilitation.