RETURNED SOLDIERS

Evening Post, Volume XCV, Issue 44, 20 February 1918, Page 8

RETURNED SOLDIERS

TREATMENT OP MENTAL CASES

The treatment of mental cases amongst returned soldiers has proved a difficult problem for medical authorities in this and other countries. The Mental Hospital Department report as follows in respect to the treatment of these cases in New Zealand :—From the beginning of the' war until 31st January, 1918, there have been received from the Expenditionary Force 44 patients requiring treatment in mental hospitals. Of this number 15 have been discharged, and 29 are in the institutions ■ at present. As a matter of fact, all these men have not been sent direct to the mental hospitals. E'or the past eighteen months the policy has been to send returned soldiers Buffering from shell shock to special homes—the Karitane Home in the South Island, and the Wolfe Home near Auckland. No neurasthenic or shellshock cases are sent to the menfal hospitals. The cases are selected with the utmost care,by an expert who meets every transport bringing men back ,to this country. There are cases which do not come within the category of neurasthenia, or shell shock, and which would not- benefit from the treatment which could be given them at the homes-—men who would be n. danger to themselves if sent there, and a source of irritation tc^ the other patients. In the interests of the men themselves, and in accordance with the law, they are forwarded to the mental hospitals for treatment. There they are not subject to unncessary restraint, not even so much restraint as would be necessary if they were in rest homes. On the contrary, in the larger homes it is possible to give them a degree of freedom that would be impossible in institutions of another character. Such patients, when thiy w* placed in mental hospitals, are treated in the best parts of the institution, and they receive the greatest amount of care compatible with their safety. It will, of course, be understood that many of these cases are insanity cases pure and simple, bearing no relation to shell shock, and they are cases which in the natural course of events would have come into the mental hospitals. It is possible that the stress of war and the change of environment have been accelerating causes. ' From year to year there are a certain number of cases of insanity occurring in men of military age, who, as far as general health is concerned, would easily pass the medi-. cal test required for military service. It is worth remark that since the war began 45 soldiets have been received into the mental hospitals from the camps, as against 44 returned soldiers. There are a.t present remaining in the instiutions 23 soldiers from the camps, and 27 returned soldiers. There is a law of averages for the occurrences of .cases of insanity, and this law operates whether the country is at war or not. In accordance - with the law there will be the usual percentage . of cases among the soldiers going on active service.