No. 496

AN ACT

Authorizing the Department (if Property and Supplies to lease to the University of Pittsburgh, the Western State Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, in Allegheny County, and providing for the management thereof by the University of Pittsburgh.

The General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania hereby enacts as follows:

Section 1. The Western State Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, located in Allegheny County, shall be used  for study and research into the causes, treatment, prevention and cure of the various types of nervous disorders and mental diseases. This institute shall also provide training and teaching both at the undergraduate and at the graduate level of students who, upon graduation, will enter the practice of general medicine, with a technical background of training in mental illness, as well as for the purpose of taking up the great gap between the number of qualified psychiatrists and the number who are needed as a result of the constantly mounting number of person, needing attention for mental disorders.

A further purpose of the institute shall be to provide regular courses of study, for State Hospital personnel in order that there may be a more highly trained and efficient staff and personnel in the various mental institutions throughout the Commonwealth.

A further purpose shall be to deal with the mental hygiene of the normal child in the way of study and  training in order that there may be a program of prevention of mental and nervous disorders, as a result of giving children the proper background and training that  will prevent such disorders.  A further purpose shall be the training and teaching  of nurses and other personnel needed in the treatment,care and prevention of mental illness.

For a further purpose the institute shall focus its expert activities on problems of administration so that studies may be made to deal effectively, humanely and economically with the care of mental illness throughout the Commonwealth.

Section 2. The Western State Psychiatric Institute  and Clinic shall be under the management of the Board of Trustees of the University of Pittsburgh, which board  shall select and appoint a director of the institute who shall be a physician of qualifications and experience in  the care and treatment of mental diseases and mental defectives.

Section 3. In addition to the Board of Trustees herein before provided for., such institution shall have a medical advisory board, the duty of which shall be to submit policy recommendations relative to the treatment and care of persons admitted to the same for treatment, and recommend anything necessary to carry out the purposes of the institute, as hereinbefore set forth.

The Medical Advisory Board shall be composed of the Secretary of Welfare, the director of the Bureau of Mental health of the Department of Welfare of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the chairman of the Medical Advisory Board of the Eastern Pennsylvania Psychiatric Institute, the director if the Western State Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, who shall he chairman of the Medical Advisory Board,  the dean of the School of Medicine of the University of Pittsburgh, the dean of the Graduate School of Public Health of the University of Pittsburgh, the dean of the School of Nursing of the University of Pittsburgh, the president of the Western Pennsylvania Neuro?Psychiatry Society,  and the chairman of the committee on the Medical Center of  the Board of Trustees of the University of Pittsburgh.

Section 4. All recommendation concerning the policies of the institute and clinic which come from the Medical Advisory Board shall be referred to the Board of Trustees through the trustee committee of the Medical Center of the University of Pittsburgh. When such recommendations are considered by the trustee committee on the Medical Center of the University of Pittsburgh, the Secretary of Welfare shall he invited to be present and to participate in the discussion of the same.

Section 5. The Department of Property and Supplies, with the approval of the Governor is hereby authorized and directed to lease for the rental of one dollar (*1.00) per annum, to the Board of Trustees of the University of Pittsburgh, all the lands, buildings and equiment in the City of Pittsburgh, County of Allegheny, Pennsylvania, which comprise the Western State Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, for such term as shall be agreed upon.

Section 6. The lease shall be prepare by the Department of Justice and executed by the Secretary of Property and Supplies. with the approval of the Governor and the Attorney General.

 Section 7. The Department of Welfare of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is hereby authorized and required to relinquish the government, management, operation and control of the Western State Psychiatric Institute and Clinic to the University of Pittsburgh, at suchtime as may be agreed upon by the terms if the lease hereinbefore mentioned.

 Section 8. Section two thousand three hundred nineteen of the act, approved the ninth day of April, one thousand nine hundred twenty?nine (Pamphlet Laws 177) entitled “An act providing, for and reorganizing  the conduct of the executive and administrative work of  the Commonwealth by the Executive Department thereof and the administrative departments, boards, commissions and officers thereof, including the boards of trustees of State Normal Schools or Teachers Colleges; abolishing, creating,  reorganizing or authorizing the reorganizations of certain administrative departments, boards and commissions; defining the powers and duties of the Governor and other executive and administrative officers, and of the several administrative departments. boards, commissions and officers; fixing the salaries of the Governor, Lieutenant Governor and certain other executive and administrative officers;. providing for the appointment of certain administrative officers and of all deputies and other assistants and employees in certain departments, boards, and commissions; and prescribing the manner in which the number and compensation of the deputies and all other assistants and employes of certain departments, boards and commissions shall he determined” as last amended by the acts, approved the twenty  sixth day of March, one thousand nine hundred forty five  (Pamphlet Laws 63) and the seventeenth day of April. one thousand nine hundred forty?five  (Pamphlet Laws 245) is hereby repealed. Approved The 20th day of May. A. D, 1949.

  JAMES H. DUFF