MENTAL HOSPITALS—NEED FOR MORE CLINICS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 192, 16 August 1939, Page 18

MENTAL HOSPITALS—NEED FOR MORE CLINICS.

Now that the Minister of Finance has been able to secure a further loan, it is to be hoped that, instead of spending money on the construction of nonproductive railways in remote parts of Xew Zealand, the Government will give consideration to my proposal for the better housing of the insane and in ■ establishing psychological clinics. Although Xew Zealanders are inclined to , boast about "God's Own Country," few. if any, realise the importance of psychological treatment for persons suffering from nervous disorders. Xew Zealand has the highest percentage of insane per 10.000 of population of any country in the world and the percentage is steadily increasing. This state of affairs shows how great is the fragility of the consciousness of civilised men, and how important for modern society is the problem of mental health. The diseases of the mind are a serious menace. They are more dangerous than tuberculosis, cancer, heart and kidney disease. They are to be feared, not only because they increase the number of criminals, but chiefly because they profoundly weaken the dominant white races. The frequency of neurosis and psychosis is doubtless the expression of a very grave defect of modern civilisation. The new habits of existence have certainly not improved our mental health. Even though it can be demonstrated that many so-called insane cases are purely psychological problems. Xew Zealand continues to lag so hopelessly behind the times that mental offenders are treated under criminal law, and. indeed, under the same law we commit them with impunity to a form of incarceration in mental hospitals. This observation applies to thousands of purely "nerve cases." The initial step in the direction of the reforms which I advocate would be the immediate establishment in each town in Xew Zealand of a society having as its object the giving of assistance to friendless patients in mental hospitals, aad the establishment of clinics where nerve cases and where people with troubled minds could secure psychological treatment. I do not sup-pest one of thon "higher thought" societies, the members of which meet daily in small rooms and pass wordy resolutions about "these vital problems." or negative organisations, always against things that matter in life. I suggest a society consisting of men and women who do not repudiate life's obligations and to whom human suffering makes an appeal. ALBERT J. HERX.

To the Editor.