EARLIER VISITING OF PSYCHIATRISTS URGED

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29820, 12 May 1962, Page 13

EARLIER VISITING OF PSYCHIATRISTS URGED

If those who felt themselves slipping towards a nervous breakdown would bring themselves to reelise earlier they needed psychiatric treatment, the work of psychiatrists, of the mental hospitals, and of the Queen Mary Hospital at Hamner Springs would be made immeasurably easier, the medical superintendent of the hospital (Dr. A. W. Wilkinson) said yesterday. “It would 'often take patients so much less time to get right again, if only they sought treatment earlier,” said Dr. Wilkinson. “Many of them would not have to come into hospital at all as inpatients.”

In addition to “nervous breakdowns” (neuroses) other types of psychiatric disorders were also treated, as well as addictions to alcohol and other drugs. The hospital also acted as a general hospital for the district. Neuroses, however —mostly states of anxiety or depression, or both —were the most common conditions.

The treatment given for neuroses was to a large extent by psychotherapy, with the patients interviewed individually by the doctors for a total of many hours. This was usually supplemented by drugs, especially in the early stages of treatment, to re-

lieve the patients’ unhappy feelings associated with their conditions. Physiotherapy and occupational therapy also took a big place. The present tendency was to reduce. the inpatient treatment time from about 12 to about eight weeks, leaving to private practitioners and hospital outpatient departments much of the rehabilitation work formerly carried out at Hanmer Springs. The part played by the Hanmer Springs churches — Anglican, Presbyterian, and Roman Catholic—in helping the patients to recovery was considerable. Their ministers and clergy gave active help to the individual patients and their families, and occasional functions were organised for the patients by the congregations.

With the shortened average stay, the waiting list for beds at the hospital had been virtually eliminated, which was greatly advantageous as a patient often became worse while waiting.