“Problems Of Young Offenders Neglected”

Press, Volume CV, Issue 31047, 30 April 1966, Page 21

“Problems Of Young Offenders Neglected”

Every child who appeared in a court in New Zealand should automatically have his background and problems exposed to expert study, Dr. P. Lewis, senior lecturer in child psychiatry at the University of Otago, said to the annual conference of the Intellectually Handicapped Children Society. “This is something the community owes these children,” said Dr. Lewis. “I find it inconceivable that in 1966, any child can appear in court without a close study of his problems being undertaken,” Dr. Lewis said. “A good deal of the punishment which is being given to these young offenders does no more than reinforce their basic difficulties.

“One of the major difficulties at the moment is our lack of facilities,” he said. “We just don’t have the means to assess the parents and families who are in trouble in New Zealand.” When Dr. Lewis was asked how many child psychiatrists were practising in New Zealand, he said that he was the only one. “And I do not really have a full-time practice,” he said. “Most of my time is taken up with teaching.” Dr. Lewis said that the cause of stress in the family of the handicapped child was often not the child itself. Rather the stress was a result of the parents’ own development and their inability to handle the difficult situation which confronted them.

“A happy family life is dependent on a capacity in its members to understand the difficulties of others,” he said. “Most parents who have the- courage to go to a psychiatric clinic to discuss the problems of their handicapped child, go there burdened with a sense of shame, guilt, and fear. “It is the interaction of nature and nurture which is a prime factor. Our lack of facilities is the worst problem. Even the best doctors are struggling with the load thrust upon them.” Dr. Lewis said the pioneering efforts of the Intellectually Handicapped Children Society were an inspiration for work in the future. “You have created the blueprint of

a service any country would be proud of.”

Dr. Lewis said that onethird of 1 per cent of children born in New Zealand were totally dependent, and that 2j per cent were handicapped to some degree.

“The school medical service has run out of physical ailments,” he said. “We are now almost entirely preoccupied with mental disorders in these children. “More than 10 per cent of the children in urban schools in New Zealand need skilled psychological or psychiatric care of some kind,” he said. “Five per cent of all of our children are so disturbed that they need this psychiatric care most urgently.”