MENTAL PATIENTS

Evening Post, Volume CXXX, Issue 22, 25 July 1940, Page 8

MENTAL PATIENTS

INCREASE LAST YEAR

ONE IN TWELVE HUNDRED

The annual report on mental hospitals in New Zealand, which was presented to Parliament yesterday, shows that there was an increase of 217 i patients in mental hospitals during [1939 compared with 1938. The ratio of i mental cases to the population was one 'in twelve hundred and nineteen. Api proximately one-quarter of the cases were mentally deficient and threequarters suffered mental disorders, recovery being possible from the latter. There were 8310 names of persons upon the registers at the end of the year including 43 patients and boarders at Ashburn Hall licensed private institution and 578 patients and boarders who were absent on probation in the care of relatives or friends. In actual residence at the eight State hospitals on December 31 there were 7689 persons—an increase of 217 compared with the previous year—and of this number 7360 were subject to a reception order, whilst 329 were voluntary boarders. There was an increase of 78 in the number of those admitted for the first time, and 340 ex-patients and boarders returned for further treatment Of all classes of admissions the hospitals were able to discharge 872, or 55.65 per cent, calculated upon th»> number admitted, but not more than 463, or 29.55 per cent., were fully recovered at the time of discharge. "This figure falls considerably short of the true recovery rate, as patients who go on probation and do not send a medical certificate or report to the institution require to be discharged as 'unrecovered,'" the report states. The total number of cases under care at Porirua Mental Hospital during the year was 1999; of these, 1771 were the subjects of a reception order; 218 were voluntary boarders, and 10 were remanded for observation. The admissions totalled 443 during the year, of whom 336 were certified patients and 107 were voluntary boarders; in addition, 9 were admitted on remand. Two hundred and two patients were discharged during the year, and 78 were well enough mentally to be on probation in the care «of relatives or friends at the end of the year. There were 130 deaths during the year, and 22 were transferred to other institutions.