Part of the record management and accountability at the hospital meant that good documentation needed to be kept. “Official Visitors” were able to witness a list of patient treatments and visit the site at any time. They were considered the independent advocate for the hospital patients.
One such Visitor was Vincent W Shoobridge who was appointed in 1925 after the resignation of Philip S. Seagar who had been an Official Visitor from 1891-1925. Official Visitors would witness the log books and sign under the last entry for the month.
The lists identified patients who needed to be restrained, secluded, had received injury, had a seizure or who had died at the hospital during the month of June 1935.
Looking through the female pages of the log book and you can see that there is sometimes a correlation with the use of restraints or seclusion and the death of the patient in the following weeks. This was most likely indicative of the person’s deteriorating mental health at the time.
The log book had a corresponding page for male patients. Each of the medical conditions being treated would also be logged along with new admissions and any discharges for the month. The Visitors would always sign in retrospect and the pages would show a date stamp or written date of the visit. There were 307 Male and 323 Female patients in the hospital in June 1935 and there was also a record of “out-patients” recorded on one page.
