MENTAL PATIENTS.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XVI, Issue 7, 19 December 1925, Page 7

MENTAL PATIENTS.

ACCOMMODATION AT GENERAL HOSPITALS. Dunedin, Dec. 18. In support of his contention that special roomg should be provided at the Dunedin Hospital for mental patients, Dr. Falconer (superintendent) furnished an elaborate report to the Hospital Board, which was referred to a committee and the honorary medical staff for a report. Dr. Falconer stated that there was no good medical ground why a patient with a mental disorder should not go to a general hospital and be admitted to a psychiatric ward unless his condition was disturbing to other patiennts. To have all mental patients sent to a hospital at some distance from the general hospital was to continue the evil tradition of maintaining an artificial division between mental and other disorders. Such artificial separation meant that patients did not get such good consultation facilities as general hospital patients. It also meant attaching a special stigma, so that patients with mild disorders were not brought for treatment and came under treatment in an advanced stage. Moreover, separation also prevented the medical and nursing staffs becoming familiar with problems of such disorders. Amongst the advantages of proposed rooms would be facilities to complete pathological, surgical and biochemical investigation of individual cases, and also a more satisfactory means of educating students, not only in mental disorders, but also in the psychological aspects of everyday practice.