Menial Health—II SUCCESS OF LATEST THERAPEUTIC AIDS

Press, Volume C, Issue 29517, 19 May 1961, Page 10

Menial Health—II SUCCESS OF LATEST THERAPEUTIC AIDS

(Contributed by members ot the Canterbury Association for Menial Health)

Treatment of mental illness is sharing the widespread progress of all sciences, which has been such a feature since World War H. In its own special and interesting way, the world of mental health has gone forward on a threefold front, each component of which helps the other. In drug therapy, where the more spectacular though not necessarily the most farreaching discoveries have been made, we have new aids that break fresh ground in treatment and may well clear the way. if not overplayed. for advances in the other two fields of aid, social and personal therapy. This new era in medicine calls for a change of view of drug treatment and for a new look at the whole field of mental illness. It is becoming increasingly obvious that mental illnesses are not necessarily the chronic ailments once so feared, since both the effects of stress produced by emotional strain and the resulting physical disturbances can be relieved in ways hitherto unthought of. These new drugs are not strictly drugs in the sense of "dope.” but are more in the nature of aids to vital bodily processes, in much the same way as insulin, which replaces a deficient body chemical. There are two groups of these drugs, the anti-depressants and the socalled tranquillisers, both of which are most effectively used in the severer forms of depression and in some of the more intractable mental disorders. They are not so effective in the less severe emotional and personality troubles, which may of course be severe enough; but this group of difficulties is much more amenable to psychological treatment, with better chances of a longerterm and more basic relief. This process, too. can in some cases be assisted by these newer forms of medicine Social Field

The second field of treatment is the social—that part of treatment arising out of the patient’s contact with people, whose task it is to help him back to health. That the impact of living produces an emotional strain that leads to much mental ill-health has long been known, but until comparatively recently, it was not suspected how subtle and deep this influence could be. This realisation has led, together with a changing attitude to the mentally ill. to a reorganisation of the way in which mental hospitals are run, especially with regard to the liberty of the patient in the hospital. This has resulted in the concept of the open hospital where patients participate in the running of ward and hospital life on the less medical side. This has been made easier by improved treatment, since now so many more patients can be helped to

take a greater share in their own and others’ welfare within the hospital. Moreover, newer treatments, which in the past have only been available on an out-patient basis through private psychiatrists. arc expected to become available shortly in New Zeal:;nd general and menial hospitals with facilities for day-time and over night patients Personal Therapy The third form of treatment is the field of personal therapy, wherein the human elements of the patient are brought forward in the way they are ever awaiting. Personal or psychological help has been going on medically for a long time, and as a result of changing ideas recent advances have been made, which prom.se much for their fuller use in treatment of a wider variety of difficulties and, most important of all, for their prevention. For this, it js not enough for those who wish to help to know of the reasons for break-down; but they must also know how to help the patient to use h ; own healing resources which are impeded by the very nature of the illness All treatment is aimed at aiding healing process,., that are part of our natural endowment, and the advances in this field have come from recognising what forms of relationship help in this process. Thus the individual is enabled to take a part in his own life, compared with his previous incapacity which has led to unsatisfactory dealings with life ending in crippling failure, dejection, and selfbitterness. Personal and group psychotherapy aims at helping the individual to learn that his problems are ones born of false attitudes, either of expectation or personal disregard Such knowledge can be achieved by the. realisation that people in general have a considerable ability to undergo changes ' with n themselves, if given the chance. This has in turn led to a changed attitude in the patient which in itself is most helpful in releasing the positive forces in living from the negative attitudes of disease New Point of View Such an approach depends on a new point of view towards disease: regarding it as a human struggle towards health, rather than merely an entanglement with unhealthy forces. Such an approach attempts to free the healthy elements within the idividual rather than effect a direct eradication of unhappy memories. Hence, once a person finds that he has more abilities and aptitudes than he imagined, there is a gradual release of more positive living, and this follows from the person’s own discovery of his true potentialities. Healthy processes can be hindered by many factors, not the least of which is the personal attitude towards mental and emotional diseases. But a changed attitude to mental illness and its recognition as a part of human suffering can let us see the sufferer as “one of us,” and thus we would accept more readily the difficulties that are troubling the emotionally ill. When we can see these people not contemptuously as "neurotics,” but as people desperately struggling for selfrealisation, then indeed we can speak of advances in treatment. (To be Continued.)