“BORDERING ON SCANDAL."

Evening Star, Issue 18717, 20 August 1924, Page 10

“BORDERING ON SCANDAL."

Mr Savage said a committee of investigation should be set up to inquire into the administration of mental institutions, facilities for handling patients, and the desirability of setting up institutions for border-line cases. Of course, the Minister’s reply -would bo that everyone would want friends to be in a border-line hospital In reference to the Auckland case, it seemed to border on a scandal, and someone had committed a grave error of judgment. The Minister of Health i Yv'ho ? Another Member: Never mind who! Mr Savage: “ Why was the man kept in the institution when the superintendent on oath admitted that be kept there a man who was not a fit subject for a patient?” It was time the Minister and the department put all their cards on the table in front of a Royal Commission. “ Two medical men had admitted, after hearing the evidence, that they were mistaken in committing the man, ’ continued Mr Savage. What sort of medical men were they to make an order of committal without knowing all the facts? Sir Maui Pomare: “ Hear, hear.” Mr Savage: “It seems plain to anybody that it was a scandalous action on the part of medical men to commit a citizen to a mental institution without having all the facts before them. If it was not childish, I should say it was bordering on tho criminal.” Mr Savage considered that the government of these institutions was wrong from beginning to end. Ho did not blame the Minister, but defied any man or set of men to govern the institution at Avondale from Wellington, or that at Seacliff from Wellington. Was it not possible 'to set up a local authority like a hospital board. Till the present bo had been under the impression that a medical superintendent had the powers of an autocrat, but lo! he had no powers at all, for someone interested in the Auckland case had to go to the Supremo Court to get a judge’s order for the release of the person committed. Mr Young: At the superintendent’s request. Mr Savage: That makes it worse. It shows that the medical superintendent lias no power. Mr Lysnar: That is the worst feature of it. Mr Savage urged the Government to set up a tribunal to investigate the position of mental institutions as a whole, and see what could be done to better conditions. At present it was largely a matter of keeping mental patients away from the rest of the community, and with present facilities it was quite impossible for those in charge to give anything like treatment. By simply locking up a person thoy would make him hopeless. Those who had any association with these places would have some idea of what it meant unless there was means of dividing them into certain classes of patients, not only in the way of a borderland institution, but also in the main institution. He feared that, like the rest of the Health Department, the mental hospitals branch was hopelessly understaffed. Mr Witty said he had visited Sunnyside, and found the place as clean as a new pin. The clothing was as good as possible, and the patients (except those who reckoned they should bo out) were very contented. There should be a midway institution where people could be thoroughly looked after without knowing that they wore in a mental hospital. There were rooms in Sunnyside Hospital, and he supposed in other hospitals, where patients were kept separate and watched for some time. Mr Witty urged more pay or earlier superannuation for attendants. Referring at Sunnyside, he considered the achievements were a credit, the bulk of the ‘ work being done by the patients. Whether they should compete in market gardening he did not know. A Member: Cut out the Chinese.