MENTAL DISEASE

Evening Star, Issue 19325, 11 August 1926, Page 3

MENTAL DISEASE

A HALFWAY HOUSE REGISTER OF DEFECTIVES / ■' . [By Ode Parliamentary Reporter.] WELLINGTON, August. 10. The presentation of the ‘Mental Hospitals, Report in the House of Representatives to-day prompted several members to again raise the question of the necessity for some' institution, not of the mental hospital type, to which incipient cases of insanity should be sent.

Mr Mason, member for Eden, spoke of the Woolf Homo, attached to Auckland Mental Hospital, as a comfort-ably-furnished institution of that kind which must give comfort and satisfaction to the friends of unfortunate patients. Mr Tapley (Dunedin North) suggested that it would be only humane if the Government provided special no c.onunodation for border-line cases. He had had letters recently from the relatives of soldier patients suggesting that these men were kept in a mental hospital when they had no right to be there; and he "wished to know what method was adopted of systematically checking the condition of patients with a view to their release if cured. Air Sidey reminded the Minister of the recommendations of a ’ committee which had reported fully on the treatment of sex perverts and mental defectives, and hoped that this report would not bo overlooked, as was sometimes the case when the recommendations did not suit a Government. The Minister in Charge of Mental Hospitals (Mr Young) replied that his officers objected to the form halfway house, but ho knew what members desired, and he wished the public to take a different attitude towards the mentally diseased,, and to look upon the patients as having a chance of recovery, and not to be ashamed if any of their relatives became troubled mentally. Ho was assured that if mental disease was taken at an early stage there was a good chance for recovery; but if there were no signs of improvement after the first six months there was a chance of a case becoming chronic. It was not an easy matter to carry out the recommendations of the committee on sox perverts and mental defectives, and there was a difference of opinion as to _ how far the State should go in dealing with the feebleminded. No doubt in duo- course legislation would be introduced, and the first step would he to make a register of all mental defectives. This wins as far as they could go for a start, and, having done that, they could_ consider whether public opinion was ripe for a measure of restraint. Members had mentioned the right of appeal against detention in mental hospitals. Ho hoped next session to have legislation which would meet that point.