Mentally III "Are Not Second-class Citizens”

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30815, 29 July 1965, Page 8

Mentally III " Are Not Second-class Citizens”

It was most important that persons lose their fears and unfounded notions that having a mental illness was something dreadful, said Dr. H. Stierlin, a German psychiatrist, in an interview in i Christchurch. Dr. Stierlin has been working in the United States for the last seven years. Until recently he was visiting scientist to the adult psychiatry branch of the National Institute of Mental Health in Maryland. After visiting New Guinea and New Caledonia, Dr. Stierlin will return to the Maryland establishment, which is the largest research hospital of its kind in the world. Dr. Stierlin said it was only natural that persons living in

such a complex world should have mental problems. “You are not a second-class citizen for suffering from mental illness, much as others may think you are,” he said. “Today, from what I understand, there are at least 10,000 mental patients occupying beds in hospitals in this country, and that out of a total population of 2|m,” he said. Perhaps a more enlightened attitude towards the psychiatrist might help to reduce the number sent to hospital and also to shorten the term in hospital.

Many family doctors had with varying degrees of skill treated their patients' psychiatric problems. This was only natural, because a patient was more accustomed to talking freely with his own doctor, and there was a tendency today for family doctors to show greater interest in psychiatric medicine. There was, unfortunately, no quick solution to reducing the number of mental patients occupying hospital beds. It was a tremendous problem when one realised the relatively small fiumber of trained psychiatrists in the country, said Dr. Stierlin. There was, perhaps, room for a wider psychiatric training programme and better staffing of mental hospitals. The ratio of psychiatrists to doctors in New Zealand mental hospitals did not compare very favourably with that in other civilised countries, he said. Dr. Stierlin said that fine work was being done in Christchurch at Calvary Hospital, where mental patients went during the day for group discussions and returned home to their families at night. “Such an institution is most encouraging and hopeful for the future,” he said.