FOR DEPRESSES MINDS

Evening Star, Issue 19003, 27 July 1925, Page 6

FOR DEPRESSES MINDS

“HALF-WAY HOUSE ESSENTIAL” DOCTOR'S EMPHATIC ADVOCACY SCHEME SUPPORTED BY CORONER. “I want- to draw pointed attention to the medical evidence in this case,” said the Coroner (Mr J. W. Bartholomew, S.M.), at the adjourned inquest to-day into the cleatli of Isabella Jane Whyte (found drowned in the Leith last Tuesday). “ It was a typical case,” he added, “ for treatment in a halfway house.” It was to hear the evidence of Dr W. Marshall Macdonald, who, as honorary surgeon, had Mrs "Whyte under his care while she was an out-patient at the Dunedin Hospital, that the inquest had been adjourned. Previous evidence was to the effect that deceased had been in a depressed stated for some time, and that, after relatives had noticed her absence from the home of her brother-in-law in the North-east Valley, her body was found in the water. Sergeant Boulton conducted the case for the police. When he first saw the deceased on June 26, stated Dr Macdonald, she was suffering from insomnia,_ and her case had been referred to him from the orthopoedic department. Ho ordered some electrical treatment, which was carried out for a fortnight. The deceased, at the "end of that time, was not much "better. He saw her on July 10. She seemed somewhat depressed. Ho did not consider her condition serious enough to warrant her admission as an in-patient. She was sent back to the orthopoedic department to have a support for her spine applied. “ "When you saw her,” asked the Coroner, “ did you think it was a case for the Mental Hospital?” “It was a typical case for treatment at a ‘ halt-way house,’ ” replied the witness. The hospital, ho added, was not supposed to admit such cases, though just within the last few days the Government had allotted £SOO a year for this purpose. He had not felt that he would have been justified in having deceased committed to a mental hospital. “What we need,” continued Dr Macdonald, “ is a ward or two wards with a total of from twelve to twenty beds. Plans for.this were drawn up years ago, and evidently the Government is going to recognise its responsibility.” “Do you think,” questioned the Coroner, “ that in the public interest, the sooner the scheme is put into operation the better?”

“ It is absolutely essential,” was the doctor’s emphatic reply. Melancholia cases, he explained, were curable, but though they would come out cured if under proper treatment, they could not be sent to a mental hospital, nor could they at present bo treated in a general hospital. Delivering his verdict that deceased had committed suicide while in a depressed state, the Coroner remarked that the evidence showed that the deceased was an out-patient at the hospital, and that previously she had been an in-patient. When last seen by him, Dr Stewart, of the hospital’s orthopaedic department, had noticed nothing “out of the way.” Dr Macdonald’s evidence, however, showed that she was depressed, though the case did not warrant her committal to a mental hospital. The evidence of the brother-in-law with whom the deceasod_ was slaying while she was an out-patient at the hospital also showed that she was depressed, though he had no apprehension. that she would commit suicide. Evidently she had suicidal impulses. After stating that he wished to draw pointed attention to the evidence of Dr Macdonald, the Coroner added: “ Tills was a typical case that would have been benefited if there had been provision for treatment iu a half-way house. The case was not sufficiently had for the continuation of treatment in the hospital, and it was not a case for certification and committment to a mental hospital. A person could not he so committed simply because lie or she Is depressed. For committal, the case must bo of a degree that amounts to set melancholia in the deepest depression, before the step would be justified. If there had been provision for a half-way house this patient would probably have boon treated there.”