MENTAL PATIENTS

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 126, 29 May 1915, Page 9

MENTAL PATIENTS

LIFE AT THE INSTITUTIONS PROGRESS AT TOKANUI POLICY OF RECEPTION HOUSES. A death in peculiar circumstances at a public institution invariably excites the attention of many people, and it is not unusual to have ' many suggestions as to safeguards against a repetition of a similar incident. A case in point is the recent fatality in the Porirua Mental Hospital. One inmate turned on the hot water for the bathing of another patient. An attendant was under an obligation, by regulation conspicuously posted, to test the water with a thermometer. This precaution was not taken, and the result was that an unfortunate man, whose health was not good, stepped into a bath of very hot water, and the shock alone helped to hasten death. In the minds of some people is a thought : "If an accident of that kind happened once with death, how often are patients similarly injured in hot baths without dying, so iv that the facts are not brought out as they would be at an inquest. Such an attitude can easily do a grave injustice to the superintendent (Dr. Hassall) and staff of the Porirua institution. 50,000 BATHS A YEAR. In the course of a year the number of bathings (including individuals and groups) of Porirua catients is estimated to be at least 50,000, and there has been only one death due to an overheated bath since the hospital was built. In this case, too, the attendant was a probationer. Ordinarily a lprge staff — a total of about 160 attendants and nurses — undergoes considerable changes, but lately the rate of alteration has been exceptionally large. Between twenty and thirty attendants have answered the call to arms for the Empire, and their places have been taken by probationers Also, in the case under notice, the patient was an elderly man, a veteran soldier, with only one arm. He sprang straight into the bath, and he was handicapped by the lack of an arm when he felt the pain of the hot water. WORK FOR INMATES. It ia a truism fthat, generally, mental sufferers can beno'it in body and mind by suitable exercise, at the discretion of the superintendent and the seniors of his staff. The bathing of patients by other_ inmates is not among the work permitted. The occupations include gardening and " handy man " services within the building and outside. Women patients have various kinds of housework, including sewing and duties in the kitchen and laundry. Besides helping in the treatment of the patients this use of many hands assists to keep down expenses. INCIPIENT CASES. Critics have often spoken and written about the need of a half-way house for the^ observation and treatment of incipient mental cases, and the layman argument usually is that such provision should bo in thp r«ntrp». The reply of the experts is that it is not practicable (without inordinate cost) to have in New Zealand such reception houses at points more or less remote from the main mental hospitals. The incipient case is ,the most difficult of all from the viewpoint of treatment, and it requires the best available skill,, both in medical and othor attendance. It is contended that New Zealand cannot afford a double staffing, and therefore reception houses are being built on sites near the main hospitals. The patients can have the important advantages of treatment by specialists in mental troubles, and they have also beauty of landscape — flowers and fields, and other healthful distractione. The new house for "incipienty*' at Porirua, which if^' nearing completion, will tak» a hundred patients, in four wards. At Seacliff, a reception cottage for women has been in good use for many years, and one for the men is almost ready. Similar progress has been mad* at Siinnyeide (near Christchurch) and at Auckland. DEVELOPING RURAL LAND. For several years work has been going forward steadily at Tokanui, which is a fairly central place on the North Island Main Trunk line. This mental hospital is not to have any resemblance to military barracks. It will bo a group ol Beparate units, each accommodating fifty patients, and the plans allow for indefinite expansion on the estate of five thousand acres (nearly eight square miles). Atready two units (taking about *, hundred patients) have betu finished, and a third is in the mo,king. The inmates are busy with farm work and other activities. The gradual progress at Tokanui is relieving pressure at the older hospitals, but it is not intended to have an immense concentration at Ibkanui. As New Zealand's population increases, tho district mental hospitals will continue to be a necessity. However, Tokanni is destined to have a large number of inmates. As time goes on, the Main Trunk line will be- linked up with the Taranaki lines and with the Gisborne district. Cases will come in conveniently hy rail to Tokanui from a very large area.