Mental Illness

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28896, 16 May 1959, Page 3

Mental Illness

Sir, —The way people work and deny themselves for backward children (born with some handi-' cap, or deficiency) is truly splendid. Full consecration, and Godinspired loved must be theirs. Is any research being conducted to seek out, and prevent the causes? Why should one in a family be' born mentally deficient whilst all the others have the usual amount of brains? Life, though fairly pleasant, is hard enough at times, without being mentally crippled. If the causes are known, they should be published widely. If not known, they should be sought. —Yours, etc., FRED. T. MILES.

April 26, 1959. [The Director of the Division of Mental Hygiene of the Health Department (Dr. R. G. T. Lewis) said that in the vast majority of cases the cause of mental subnormality was not known and a considerable amount of research was being carried out overseas into causative factors. The newly formed associations for mental health would be able to do much to disseminate what knowledge there was of causation. The Division of Mental Hygiene had commenced to collaborate with one association for mental health and the Department of Psychiatry at the Otago Medical School with a view to producing some informative pamphlets on mental health through the Division of Health Education of the Department of Education. This was a project for “Mental Health Year”—l96o. Dr. L. T. Hilliard, Physician Superintendent of the Fountain Hospital, London, and a world authority on mental deficiency, would be sneaking in Christchurch on May 18.]