DISABLED SOLDIERS

Evening Post, Volume XCVIII, Issue 114, 11 November 1919, Page 10

DISABLED SOLDIERS

WELFARE IN DISCHARGE.

In response to a number of complaints regarding the discharge of soldier outpatients, Brigadier-General Richardson, Officer in Charge of Administration, has ■issued_ a statement with the object of removing the impression that the men are being discharged to reduce their pay. ■

In the course of his statement General Richardson says :—"A soldier who has suffered a disability (whether due to wound or. sickness) which is due to or aggravated' by his war service is discharged from the New Zealand Expeditionary . Forces ar soon as his disability is so far removed as to enable him to undertake some civil occupation. He is then given a pension proportionate to the percentage of disability he is Buffering. While still undischarged a soldier labours under certain disadvantages as compared with the discharged man In the first place, he is not permitted to undertake any civil occupation for remuneration. In the second place, he is not able to apply for land under the Soldiers Land for Settlement Act nor to receive advances of money from the Government to assist him in taking up civil occupation. Thirdly, he is still subject to certain disciplinary restrictions, from-which the discharged man is. free.

"It is clearly to the advantage of both the soldier and the State that he should be given every opportunity to resume a civil occupation as soon as possible. Apart from the material benefit attached to work, occupation is of the greatest ..advantage in combating the state of mental lethargy and introspection which is engendered by prolonged illness and convalescence. In order, further, to enable men to follow occupation more continuously, evening clinics have been arranged ill each main centre; where outPatients may receive treatment at such hours as will not interfere with their employment.

"In the case of permanently totally disabled soldiers, of which there is a comparatively small number, discharge fromthe N.Z.E.F is effected when their condition has reached a final stationary condition which cannot be further improved by treatment. It may be pointed out that in certain cases where pen-sic-ns are supplemented or an attendant paid for by the Pensions Board, a man may actually receive more in pension when discharged than, he did in /pay prior to discharge."