MENTAL HYGIENE

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 144, 16 December 1930, Page 18

MENTAL HYGIENE

ADDRESS BY DR. E. NOBLE

The international mental hygiene movement was the subject of an interesting address delivered by Dr. Ralph Noble, of Sydney, at the Dominion Farmers' Institute last evening. There was a large attendance, Dr. T. G. Gray, Director-General of Mental Hospitals, presiding. -. Dr. Noble said it was a groat inspiration to meet leaders from every country in the.world at the recent international conterenco, dealing with a subject in which they were all interested. Mental hygiene was really the preventive aspect of psychiatry—the study of early mental and nervous disorders. Mental hygiene was a branch of science—the branch which dealt with prevention. The whole world now realised more and more that prevention was the main aspect of modern medicine. In the past very little attention had been given to the prevention of mental and nervous disorders. Preventive medicine in the ordinary sense had made great strides, especially since the great discoveries of Pasteur. Mental hygiene meant telling people how they could enjoy life. It was not s u much the science of- the cure of disease as the science of enjoyment of health and life, and that was a subject which mjxst appeal to everybody. He stressed the importance of mental clinics in dealing with early cases of threatened mental breakdown. The education of uf/feetives was touched upon; also child guidance clinics and other topics dealt with in tho interview published in the "Evening Post" yesterday. "I would like," ho said in cqnelusion, "to persuade you in the coming year, when we all feel there wfll be social and economic troubles, to say: 'I am going to do something for other people.' If you direct your attention to this field of mental hygiene, I am sure you will find it worth while in every way." On the motion of Dr. Carbery, a vote of thanks was passed to Dr. Noble for his address.