WAR NEUROSIS

Auckland Star, Volume LXXV, Issue 213, 8 September 1944, Page 6

WAR NEUROSIS

TREATMENT OF SUFFERERS GARDEN COLONIES ADVOCATED "It is easy for civilians to assert that we're fighting for the four freedoms against those who would take them from us, but in their. hearts some returned servicemen are asking with hope half-abandoned, 'What have I fought for?'" said Mr. J. Hope Haynes, when discussing the rehabilitation of Grade 4 men at the Y.M.C.A. Optimists Club luncheon. Outlining the suffering, of men whose nerves were shattered, he explained how Britain had rehabilitated such cases after World War 1., by getting them back to nature and close to the soil on small holdings. Men unable to return to their former occupations needed the quiet restfulness of the country and could not be caged within four walls without danger to their mental stability. ''In the rush of post-war recon-, struction, everyone will be so occupied with the hustle and bustle of rebuilding that the country may find little time to care for nervous derelicts," he said. "Grade 1 and 2 men and some of Grade 3 are being well looked after because they can help themselves. I am not concerned about them. It is the Grade 4 men and about 50 per cent of the Grade 3 who need specialist psychiatric treatment. In a recent batch of returned men, there were 3000, or 58 per cent suffering from neurasthenia. It is hard to cure; utterly impossible with an indoor life. Their self-pity is the first step to hell, for it's the end of all self-help. "Amputees and the blind receive fullest compensation, but anxietyneurotic cases receive scant recognition. Astounding results have been achieved in America, where trained psychiatrists have been mobilised to cope with a problem which becomes vaster with each successive war. Typical of what is happening here is the case of one man who was interviewed. 'What you need,' he was told, 'is a good kick in the pants!' Fancy treatment like that for a man with nerves shattered by war! There ar? 34 returned men in our mental hospital to-day suffering from war neurosis. Advocating a garden colony scheme to meet every possible need of men sufferinj from war neurosis, he explained how he had managed the Cambridge Rehabilitation scheme after the last war in Britain. Complete rest and an outdoor life helped men to reinstate themselves and gradually undertake more work. A copy of the full scheme had been circulated to every returned soldier in the House of Representatives. The Minister of Rehabilitation, Mr. Skinner, had said he was in favour of it and a place was being established near Dunedin on the small farm holding system. "There should be four such centres through New Zealand," concluded Mr. Hope Haynes, "and it is everyone's responsibility to help."