MENTAL HOSPITALS

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 121, 26 May 1925, Page 7

MENTAL HOSPITALS

REFORMS IN PROGRESS

,'i'WILL BE REGARDED BY PUBLIC

WITH APPROVAL"

OPINIONS OF THE PRESS.

"For reasons that require no explana--1 tion the affairs of the mental hospitals ,o£ the Dominion do not receive more : publicity than is absolutely necessary. • But as the importance that attaches .to the administration of the mental hospital system of the Dominion upon the -most enlightened and humanitarian lines cannot be over-estimated," says the "Otago Daily Times," and the statement by the Minister in charge, which we publish this morning, relative to active measures that are to be instituted with a view to bringing the institutions, and service of the Department up to a more satisfactory standard of efficiency and progress, should be read with a great deal of interest .The proposals that are outlined by the Minister are such as must generally commend themselves to the public mind. Tho very mention of some of the measures .that are to be adopted is sufficient to indicate the reality of weaknesses in the mental hospital system to which attention is to be devoted. It is satisfactory to see that prominence is given to the desirability of the prompt recognition of serious mental affections and of the adoption of suitable treatment in the early stages. The need for action of the kind that has now been decided ■upon has too often been illustrated in a somewhat painful way. The establishment of out-patient .clinics at the general hospitals—"clinics for nervous affections," attendance at which will be free from any implication of mental trouble upon the lines indicated by the Minister of Health will be thoroughly helpful, and it is to be .hoped that the purpose of the plan will be furthered by a recognition of its advantages on the part of the public. . . . The increased respect recognised by the Department as due to the .humanitarian aspect of the mental hospital services is a welcome feature of the measures upon which, with, a view to efficiency and progress, the Department has now decided. Nothing but approval can be accorded to proposals which provide for increased attention being_ given to the protection of those entering a mental institution against injurious results that may be due to discovery of their environment. The details, supplied by the Minister respecting the adoption of improved facilities ior classification, care, and treatment, especially in the case 'of more recent impressionable, sensitive, and curable patients, will all be regarded by " tha public with approval. . "IN SYMPATHY. WITH PUBLIC OPINION." "The outline that .Sir Mam Pomare gives to-day of his proposals for the reorganisation- of tho Mental Hospiatals Department," states the "Christchurch Stur," "will be extremely welcome as an indication that he and his advisers are aiming at the most up-to-date practice in the treatment of mental disease. The most, important -proposal if tho es'tubhshment of clinics at, general hospitals, whore patients subject to nervous aftections may be examined without any implication of insanity, mental breakdown, or 'border-lino' trouble. ... Of course, classification is largely'a matter of money, and it may be .too much to expect the Minister to go all the way at once on the available vote, but his Department is acting along the right lines, and in many important directions, .notably in the systematic adjustment and improvement of diet, in dental'treatment, in the abolition of detention in • prison, and generally in the more- humnno care of patients, he is acting in sympathy with public opinion on this very important subject.". "THOROUGHNESS AND COURAGE." "The programme of reorganisation of tlie mental hospitals of the Dominion as. outlined by the Minister of Health and summarised in this .issue," says the , "Lyttelton Times," "bears evidence of thoroughness and courage. AVhile it i does not solve or pretend to solve all the difficult problems that attend the care and treatment of the insane, the existence of such problems has been frankly .recognised and a perusal of 'the report leaves one with the impression that there has been an honest and painstaking effort to institute reforms to the utmost extent compatible with the means at the Department's disposal. - Particularly important in our opinion are the provisions dealing with cases that may be said to be on tho border-line— the establishment of weekly clinics in connnection with the general hospitals; the provision that persons suspected of mental trouble shall be dealt witlr in tho first instance not by the police but by the general hospital, and the separation of new patients from old-uwl their accommodation in a separate part of a mental hospital. . . . To a very great extent, of course, the carrying out of the programme is a matter of money. The report states that 'substantial provision 1 has been made for expenditure in the matter of buildings, sanitary arran"e,ments, the acquisition of land and so forth, and there is mention of a Cabinet grant to the general hospitals in the ,four centres for the purpose of acconi.modatmg cases under observation. Taken in conjunction with the-observation that bir Truby Kin - hns been criven 'a prae- ■ tically free hand' m connection with the reorganisation these ' references surest that the funds necessary to establish tho new regime will not be lacking If ■that is the case, Sir Maui Pomare°is to be congratulated upon initiating reforms .that ought to place this Dominion well in the van of progress so far as the care of the insane is. concerned. • What is needed - now is a similarly workmanlike and ndecmnte provision for the solution of the problem of the feeble-minded nivl t'->e de~enerntes of our community. fV.at, however, it is to he feared will be a much mnv? <*ifFniH tnpk." ' -