WAR’S TERRIBLE PRICE

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXI, Issue 303, 7 December 1931, Page 10

WAR’S TERRIBLE PRICE

WOUNDINC OF THE MINO. LASTING EFFECTS ON NERVES. The persistence of neurasthenia and so-called “shell-shock” attributable to war service and the work of relief done by the Ex-Services Welfare Society are described in the Lancet by Dr. Eric Coplans, medical referee, Ministry of Pensions, Battersea and Wandsworth areas, and consulting physician, Joint Civil Services Health Committee. Between 1926 and 1930. Dr. Coplans states, he was in medical charge of the London patients of the Ex-Services Welfare Society, which receives only neurasthenic cases. During that time 527 of those men passed through his hands, a number which from the dates, eight to 12 years after the armistice, showed tho lasting effects of the war upon the nerves. “It was impossible,” Dr. Coplans says, “not to be impressed by the fact that fully 80 per cent, were unskilled men of the labourer type, with no trade on their hands. It was rare indeed to have to deal with an artisan or craftsman. Many of these men had no pension whatever. There was no wound to show, no loss of eye or limb, and to the ordinary observer they presented in some cases a picture of health. It was the mind that had been wounded, and only their families and intimate associates have the least idea of their sufferings. “These men live on the frontiers of tear, their days are a torture, and often through the night they endure again the horrors of war. It is not unusual to be called to such a man sitting trembling with ashen face on the side of his bed, refusing to sleep, since sleep brings no peace, but lifts a curtain on the fearful drama of the past. But chiefly it was tho ‘anxiety type’ that one encountered; fear of mankind, fear of traffic, and fear oi himself And it was this type that proved most amenable to treatment. “The men that came to the society were in every sense broken, mentally bankrupt, and often without means of support. Usually there was a wife and family and some raging creditors in tho background. The society realised from the start that it was idle to attempt to cure a man while his wife and family were starving; so they adopted the whole bunch—man, family, and very often the creditors. “Under sympathetic but firm tutelage the man was taught to become self-supporting. He had nothing to worry about. His wife and family received an allowance and his creditors were pacified.” The work of the society also resulted in the granting of pensions running into many thousands of pounds. “Bv such means these war derelicts, their self-confidence restored, were enabled once again to face the battle of life as useful citizens.”