The Authority for Intellectually Handicapped Persons (AIH) was formed by the Authority for Intellectually Handicapped Persons Act 1985. Its role was to advance the ‘rights, responsibility, dignity, development and community participation of people with intellectual disability in Western Australia’. The AIH ran many hostels and developed a Local Area Coordination service to assist people with…
The Mental Health Act Amendment Act 1965 (037 of 1965) included the term ‘intellectually defective’ to describe a person who was ‘suffering from arrested or incomplete development of mind’ (s.3b). This was the first time intellectual disability had been distinguished from mental illness in the statute law of Western Australia.
The Mental Health Act 1962 (046 of 1962 (11 Eliz. II No. 46)) was amended twice before it came into force on 1 July 1966. It repealed the Lunacy Act 1903 and related Acts less relevant to children in out of home care. Intellectual disability was not distinguished from mental ‘disorder’ in the Act, which…
Mental Health Services was a government department responsible for the prevention and treatment of mental illness in Western Australia for the period 1 January 1954 until 1 July 1984. It took over this role from the Mental Hospitals Department. Up until the 1960s it was common to place children with intellectual and other disabilities in…
The Mental Hospitals Department was a government department responsible for the administration of mental health hospitals in Western Australia for the period 1934 until 1 January 1954. It took over this role from the Lunacy Department. During this period it was common to place children with intellectual and other disabilities in mental health institutions.Through the…
The Senses Foundation Inc Records is a collection of records and photographs from the Royal West Australian Institute for the Blind and its predecessors. It is held in the Battye Library’s Private Archives Collection at the State Library of Western Australia. Access Conditions Many of the records relating to people who have been in out…
Senses Foundation was formed in 2001 by a merger of the Royal Western Australian Institute for the Blind and the WA Deaf-Blind Association. Senses inherited the records of both organisations.
The Royal West Australian Institute for the Blind (RIB) was established in 1895 as the WA Industrial School for the Blind in Maylands. It was run by a private committee of ‘subscribers’ who supported the Institute financially. Children lived and went to school at the Institute and there was also a workshop and living quarters…
Greenplace was a government-run facility, established in Mosman Park in 1914 as an annexe of the Claremont Hospital for the Insane. It admitted female psychiatric patients, possibly including adolescents with intellectual disabilities. From 1946 until it closed in 1979, Greenplace was a hostel for female psychiatric patients. Greenplace was established in 1914 as an annexe…
Claremont Hospital for the Insane was established in 1903, becoming known as the Claremont Mental Hospital in 1933. It was a government-run facility that accommodated children and young people with intellectual and other disabilities until the hospital closed in 1972. Claremont Mental Hospital was Western Australia’s main mental health institution from 1903 to 1972. Children…
Dec 18, 2024
Nov 15, 2024
