Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1896-10-23
The state Board OF Supervisors and the
Care of the Vnsane

The state Board OF Supervisors and the
Care of the Insane.
Our legislators at Montpelier ought to
consider the question very carefully, and
avail themselves of all reliable sources of
information, before they adopt the recon-
mendation by Governors Woodbury. and
Grout in their messages and legislate the
supervisors of the insane out of existence.
To people of intelligent information on
this subject 1t was a surprise to find the
outgoing and incoming governors uniting
in definite recommendation to this effect
in their messages. The primary purpose
of the establishment of the Vermont
board of supervisors of the insane was
that these officials might have in charge
the insane poor of the state and give per-
sonal attention to their care and proper
treatment, whether they are inmates of
asylums or not. Furthermore the statute
specifically makes it the duty of the board
to visit the asylums of the state at stated
intervals and note their condition and man
agement and their treatment of patients.
1t is their duty to "hear the grievances of
patients apart from the officers and keep
ers, and investigate the cases that in their
judgment require special investigation,
and particularly to ascertain whether per-
sons are confined in such asylums or other
places who ought to be discharged"
This language of the statute shows clear
ly that it is intended that main func-
ton of the board shall be to stand as pro-
tectors of the unfortunate inmates of the
asylums, and to act as an authorized means
of communication between them and the
world outside. The suggestion made by
the governors that the board may now be
abolished because the state is caring for its
insane in its own asylum, through its own
officials, has no pertinency. On the con-
trary this fact furnishes the strongest possi-
BILE reason why the board should be con-
tinued. To put four hundred unfortunate
men and women-the insane poor of the
state-into the absolute control of any su-
perintendent and his assistants, without
systematic oversight from any other source,
would be to invite abuses and scandals.
In no state of the Union does such state
of things exist. In every state provision
for official oversight is made through
boards of lunacy or other similar channels.
At this writing it is not clear why the
scandal which has come to the surface this
week in the state asylum at Waterbury did
not first come under the observation of the
state board of supervisors. The only rea-
sonable supposition is that, if the charges
were made in good faith and for adequate
reasons, the persons making them were
not informed of the scope of the supervis-
ors' duties and powers.
In their consideration of this question,
and of all questions concerning the treat
ment of the insane, our legislators should
remember this one fundamental fact
Modern civilization and the public senti-
ment of the time demand-not that the
average cost per capita of caring for these
unfortunate people shall be screwed down
to the lowest possible cost, but that the es-
sential consideration shall be to assure
their humane treatment and the provision
for them of all proper and reasonable
means to ameliorate their condition and
aid in their recovery.