MENTALLY AFFECTE D SOLDIERS

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3052, 13 April 1917, Page 4

MENTALLY AFFECTE D SOLDIERS

TREATMENT IN HOSPITAL STATEMENT BY THE MINISTER, The Minister of Public Health (the Hon. G. \V. Russell) has had inquiries made regarding the returned soldiers who are in the Mental Hospital at Avoudale. A little time ago statements wero made in Auckland under the authority of the Returned Soldiers' Association about the condition of these men, and suggesting that they were being treated with ;unnecessary harshness. Mr. Russell made a statement yesterday as to the results of his inquiries.

"1 find," said Sir. Russell, "that there are only four soldiers in the Auckland Mental Hospital, and tho suggestion was that there were many more than that. I asked Dr. Hay, Inspector of Mental Hospitals, to visit the institution, and he lias 6iipplied me with a report as to the condition of these unfortunate men. Dr. Hay reports that on tho last occasion on which he visited Avondalo ho interviewed three of the men —the fourth not being in a fit condition to be interviewed—and he received from them assurances that they were quite comfortable at the institution, and that they had no complaints to mako. Furthermore, his ■. reports show very clearly that the men who are there are fit subjects for the institution —men who would certainly be sent to a mental hospital if they were civilians and not soldiers at all. •

"I have been anxious for a longtime to mako arrangements' for North Island men who are in the earlier stages of mental trouble arising out of service with the array. : During my last visit to Auckland I discussed with Dr. Beattie, Superintendent of the Auckland Mental Hospital, the desirability of establishing an institution connected with the Auckland Mental Hospital on tho same lines as the homo at Puketeraki, near Duncdin, to which all men suffering from nourastheuia or mental shock had hitherto been sent. As a result it has been determined to establish tho Wolfe Home in buildings contiguous, to the Avondale institution, and to reserve it for neurasthenic soldiers belonging to the North Island. The home is now being prepared for the re- • ception of such patients. Special orderlies will be supplied as probationary attendants, and the necessary, number of experienced men will be appointed from the mental hospital staff to care for the unfortunate men who have to be placed there. There will be still some cases for whom the mental hospital will be the only place, but every man so afflicted who has a chance of recovery will be placed in the AVolfo Home,- and, as is 'being done now at Puketeraki, every effort will bo made to lead him back to a' normal state of mind as soon as and so help liim to get back to his ordinary civilian life again. "The Auckland Returned Association also raised the question about the payment of pensions to the men in the mental hospital; It appears that some time ago an arrangement was made with the Mental Hospital Department that the pensions payable to returned soldiers who were placed in mental hospitals should be devoted to their upkeep. When I learned that this arrangement existed I atvonce cancelled it, and the pension certificates hold by the Department were returned to the Pensions Department." Mr. Russell explained that a pension 'could bo granted to' the representatives of a man in hospital, to bo used for the purchase of comforts for him or to be banked for his use when lie is .well enough to be discharged.