Mental Hospital Charges

Dominion, Volume 27, Issue 59, 2 December 1933, Page 9

Mental Hospital Charges

Sir—The following is a case in which a supporting relative of a mental hospital patient has been penalised by the authority given in the Mental Defectives and Destitute Persons Acts, and has been unable to obtain redress. The patient in question has been an inmate of the common ward for many years, receiving no special treatment, no amenities. his clothing and comforts being found by the relatives, ten shillings weekly having been paid for custody and plain food. - In late years it so happened an increase in maintenance could be paid. The department took advantage of this knowledge, and under the amendment to the Act. arbitrarily raised it to 42/- per week. Payment of this charge was resisted, and for the best part of a year payment was made at 30/- weekly. The supporting relative was at length served with a summons, under the Destitute Persons Act, to show cause why he should not pay the higher amount. Advice was taken, and it was not thought advisable to resist the claim, the two Acts placing the department in an almost unassailable position. Up to a year ago close on £7OO had been paid for the patient’s maintenance. Early in life an insurance policy had been taken out in their name, the premiums being paid by relatives. The policy matured in 193.1, the insurance company handing the moneys over to the Public Trustee. This officer represented the matter to the mental hospitals. The department then compelled assent to pay arrears at 42/- per week out of the policy money, and retrospective to 1926. The two departments absorbed the corpus in less than a year. Now, sir, if the average cost is 42/weekly, and capital costs appear to have been considered, it is too high, and calls for scrutiny and revision. The New Zealand Year Book, 1931. states there are seven mental hospitals, and the patients were 6661. Over four years the revenue increased by over £37,000, and in the same period the expenses jumped up over £28.000. Up to 1931 there had been a large relative increase in patients, but for the next year there was a drop in expenditure, receipts, and cost per capita, and it has not yet been shown that- this will be reasonably maintained. It is recognised no parsimony should be shown in expenditure to avert threatened mentality, or to restore mental balance to the afflicted, but the department is acting contrary to the standard of right wlien it extorts from relatives of permanent patients, incarcerated in the common ward, maintenance at two guineas weekly, and declines to accept reasonable offer of payment, nor will answer letters addressed to it except by way of issue of a summons to show cause. —I am. etc., SHAFTESBURY. Wellington, November 30.