MENTAL HOSPITALS

Evening Star, Issue 14187, 12 October 1909, Page 7

MENTAL HOSPITALS

LAST YEAR'S WORK

BIG INCREASE IN ADMISSIONS,

[From. Our Parliamentary Reporter.]

WELLINGTON, October 12. " The number of patients admitted to the mental hospitals of New Zealand during 1908 was 744—a truly phenomenal advance on the previous year, when tho admissions, less transfers, numbered 600." This ominous sentence occurs in the annual Teport covering the working of the mental hospitals of the Dominion, and presented to Parliament to-day. Of the 744 admissions, 154 had been previously resident in mental hospitals, and 610 were admitted for the first time. Tho number of patients on tho register at the commencement of the vear was 3,240 (males 1,909, females 1,331). At the end of the year there were 3,414 patients on the register (males 1,997, females 1,417). The proportion of insane to the total population, exclusive of Maoris, is 1 in 285, and, inclusive of Maoris, 1 in 295. In the treatment -of insanity advances are being made which the medical officers hero are studying, and this further stimulates the public confidence. But it is stated that such confidence cuts two ways: it is found that many irrecoverable patients, wlk> cotdd and would have been kept at home under former conditions, are now being sent by relatives to the mental hospitals, knowing that they will be comfortably housed and humanely tended. For this reason the recovery rate is not a standard for weighing the "value of treatment, though the general figures show that during the year there were 692 patients who were classed as more or less curable. "'The proportion of cases at any one time is a small fraction of the number resident. On the Ist January, for instance, in only 4.94 per cent, of the inmates was there reasonable expectation of TecbveTy, and if possibilities were added to probabilities, the. proportion was merely advanced to 8.55 per cent." After referring to hereditary predisposition to insanity, Dr Hav, who compiled the report, "makes this weighty statement: Another matter which cannot be too often repeated, until to every mother the knowledge becomes self-evident, relating to the proper nourishing of her child—the nature of the nourishment supplied to tho developing organism must influence the life historv of every one of its component cells. The milk of each class of mammal is different, and that differonce is exactly adapted to the requirements of the young. The human mother and infant being no exception, it should hardly need to be stated that the further that nature is departed from in this matter, even if the fact be not immediately apparent, the more unfitted must the organism become to beaT stress in the future. Thus may the strong at birth be reduced to the condition of those who have the misfortune to inherit a constitution less able than their, fellows to resist toxic influences. Given good food in proper proportion and the teeth to masticate it, pure air breathed at all times, and exercise (to stimulate, not to fatigue), the organism will be able to combat a large number of the causes which bring so many people to our mental hospitals.

At the end of the year 713 patients were under special care, or 22 per- cent, of the total. Last year the percentage was only 13.56. The increase has greatly added to the anxieties of supervision. Apropos of the decision to erect the new Government House at Mount View (Wellington), and the fact that the unfortunates now residing in the institution theTe will have to bo removed early in 1910, it is stated that a suitable and sufficient site for a new central mental hospital has been selected, and the matter is now one for surveyors and other necessary preliminaries to acquisition. "Pioneer works will be required before the patients can be removed thither, but once a start is madp the site will be found admirably adapted for a scheme of detached buildings, to be proceeded with as opportunity offers or necessity dictates. In the meantime accommodation has to bo found elsewhere." It is emphatically stated that each year must add to tho mental hospital population, and Dr Hay suggests a large building plan for different institutions. "The expenditure must be faced." he says, " and such works as have not yet been started should he put in commission immediately, or it will not be possible for the Mount View patients to be provided for elsewhere."

Making allowances for head office salaries and expenses, the net cost per patient, compared with the previous year, increased by 18s lOd. The total expenditure on farms was £8,655; the produce Fold realised £5,770; and the value of produce consumed was £10,996. The net income from farms was therefore £B,lll.

THK SEACLIFF INSTITUTION. Dr Hay. m the departmental report sav.s as_ regards Seacliff Mental Hospital :' " At this date, January 19, there are on the register 763 patients (males 464, females 309 of whom 17 (males 12, females 5) arc on piobation. leaving resident 746 (males 442 females 304), all cf whom were s«en and many conversed with. No one is improperly detained. It was evident to me, from rny discussion of their cases with Dr King that the individual ir, not overlooked in the number. The salient features of tho cas?s into which I inquired were recalled by him without reference to case books, and it wis satisfactory to note that his keen persci;al and scientific interest in the welfare of the patients was reflected in their care and treatment. Such being the case, it is a benefit to the country, though si! far nc. hus own health ir, concerned Is another matter. He has chosen to employ u!> has leisure and holiday time, his talent ", and his .special knowledge "in spreading information on the fundamental principles of health. The patients' recreations have been largely attended to. More day room accommodation is wanted for disturbed male patients, and at the farm-workers' cottage The general health of the patients is and there was almost complete absence of excitement by day and by night. During the inspection I saw many meals served. The feed was well cooked" and dried." Dr Truby King reported: '-The year opened with 735 patients, and at the close there were 763, being an increase of 28 lhis increase was due to the very number of admissions during the year—viz.. 136. The average admission- rate durJng the four preceding years of tho quinquennium was only 120. (2) The unusuailv email proportion of deaths—viz., 46 This equals 6 per cent, on the number of patients incident, whereas the average of the last few years for the Dominion".shows 7 per cent, on tno total certified insane population. It is interesting to note that ten of tnc pat:ent6 -who died during the year at oeacliff were between seventy and eighty years of age, and two were" over eighty Of the younger patients who died, seven were general paralytics, and seven suffered from phthisis. The discharges during the year numbered seventy-two, being practically 50 per cent, of the admission rate, or about the average for the institution ; and in other respects the statistics of tho year show no special features.