A VISIT TO THE CHILDREN'S CONVALESCENT HOME

Evening Star, Issue 17365, 29 May 1920, Page 5

A VISIT TO THE CHILDREN'S CONVALESCENT HOME

[By C.vxon Xevill.] Children appeal to most of us, for they represent the future of the race ; and the natural feeling is that wo want to give them as good as chance in life, if not a better one, than we ourselves have had. This feeling is naturally most strongly evoked when we see children ill or sufiering. Then, we say, something must be done for them. The Convalescent Home at Forbury corner is an effort in this direction, and a visit to it is well worth while. Since its opening the grounds have been very much improved : many of the overhanging trees have been cut away, and there is sunshine, and air round the house, and a sense of spaciousness which it lacked before. Inside, the change is even- more noticeable. The erstwhile empty rooms are furnished with cots, most suitable for ch:k'.re:i wanting care, and there is an excellent playroom for wet days. A magniikient dolls' house has been provided, but toys and books are always welcome ; for the average child has a happy knack of breaking even the strongest tovs. The only things that ever survive infant iconoclasrn are the old-fashioned wooden Dutch dolls which, minus arms and legs, display an admirable vitality. Books "of all sorts naturally go the same way. The sister in charge gives most encouraging reports of the children sent to the Convalescent Home. By her account the children develop most remarkably in healfn and physique on being transferred to Forbury. They put on flesh ; they are happv ; and they show most unmistakeabiy that they appreciate the homelike atmosphere around them. It would bo difficult for them not to feel happy there. If the most skilled care and thought can make them happy they get all that and more. It would be a delightful experience for a good many children" in Dunedin to go to the home for a month. The sister told mp that one of the most noticeable filings about children who come from unsatisfactory homes, was the improvement, not only in health, but in conduct and behaviour. They seemed to benefit almost at once from the regular and sensible method of life, regular hours, good plain food, perfect clearness: the real cure for all the things which in children lead to debilitation and impaired vitality. This sounds almost as ii one we're saving that every child, to be happy, should be in a home. In a sense, however, there is more than a suspicion of truth in it. What is lacking in so many homes today is home life itself. Ilonie life is the p:\duct of character and not, as thousands imagine, of indulgence and easy toleration of ind : scip!ined life. In a consaiescent- home the life of the children is a life with rules in it ; but rules which benefit the children's lives at once by the steady restraint and obedience to orders which the children recognise, and most of ail perhaps by the early and regular hours. One of the things in Dunedin which want supplying most of all is a real children's hospital. Nothing at all can be said in praise of the present system of brigading sick and suffering children with grown-up women in the General Hospital. It is inconceivable how anvone can fail to perceive what a dreadful nerve strain it must be to sick adults to have children in their ward, perhp.ps crying all night long. As a handicap to recovery it" is probably unrivalled, "it is also as detrimental to the children as it can possibly be. Children do not thrive, or, when sxk. get well in the society of sick, and sometimes dying people. The ideal and the best way of dealing with the whole matter would be to turn the Convalescent Home into a children's subsidiary hospital, transport ail the sick children "there and bidid on a convalescent wing, so th;it the whole thing would be Tinder one management, and within the same compass. Obviously there are always more sick children than convalescent ones ; and the convalescent chi.dreu get well and go away ; but the benefit of segregation to the sick children would be well worth the money expended on it; in fact, it is wonderful to think that any doctors can be really content to see children situated as thi?y are in the General Hospital now; and equally evident, the whole arrangement was one which did well enough 50 years ago but is an intolerable anachronism today.