CARE OF RETARDED CHILDREN

Press, Volume XCI, Issue 27638, 20 April 1955, Page 2

CARE OF RETARDED CHILDREN

ORDER EXTENDS WORK TO CHRISTCHURCH

The Provincial General of the Hospitallers of St. John of God, Brother Killian, accompanied by three nursing brothers arrived in Christchurch from Australia yesterday to found a hospital for retarded children at Middleton. The order, founded more than 400 years ago, has as its principal work the nursing of the sick, and it specialises in the care and training of the mentally retarded.

Members of the order came to Australia in 1947 at the invitation of Cardinal Gilroy, and opened a training centre for 100 retarded boys near Sydney. Four years later, the order opened a hospital for men suffering from mental and nervous disorders, and in 1953 and 1954 opened centres in Melbourne. The order cares for 230 boys in Australia, and there is a long waiting list for admission to its homes. In Europe, the United States, Canada, South Africa, Japan, and Indo-China. the order has more than 200 hospitals —general and mental, homes for the chronic sick, cripples, epileptics, the blind, the homeless, and centres for the retarded. The brothers qualify as general and mental nurses, and they hold diplomas from the Royal Medico Psychological Association of Great Britain for the care and training of the mentally retarded. Some of the brothers qualify as doctors and chemists.

The hospital at Middleton will be non denominational. The work of preparing the hospital for the admission of boys has begun.