NEW ZEALAND COUNCIL FOR MENTAL HYGIENE

Manawatu Times, Volume LIV, Issue 6843, 22 February 1929, Page 6

NEW ZEALAND COUNCIL FOR MENTAL HYGIENE

Formed by Medical Men

CRITICAL STUDY OF CONDITIONS OF LIFE

CHILDREN AND PARENTS. - > Per Press Association. WELLINGTON, Last Night.

An important step forward and one which should have a far-reaching effect on ar.j future legislation in regard to mental defectives, has boon taken at tho conference of the New Zealand branch of the British Medical Association in its decisou to form a Now Zealand Council for mental hygiene. Tho decision to form a New Zealand Council for n ttacal hygiene was reached to-day and this body will link up with the International council.

The objects will follow ‘the same lines as the British Mental Council namely (a) to promote a critical study of tho social life, industrial lfe and environments of the people with a view to eradicating those factors which lead to mental ill-health and unhappiness. (2) To investigate the various causes; physical and psychological, underlying failures of social adjustments. (3) To consider the extent to which clinical psychology may contribute towards the elucidation of tho problems of habitual criminality and (4) from the standpoint of prophylaxis, most important of aL, to study the mental hygiene of child life in relation to parental responsibility. New Zealand is tho last Englshspeaking country to join the International council, which has decided to hold an international congress in Washington from May 5 to May 10 at which it is hoped New Zealand will be represented.

Mental Deficients and Incurably Diseased INQUIRY REQUESTED. THOUSANDS OF USELESS PEOPLE KEPT ALIVE.

LONDON, Feb. 20. The Grand Council of tho National Citizens’ Union passed a resolution urging the Minister of Health to conduct an inquiry into the best methods of dealing with the mentally deficient and incurably diseased, including a special inquiry into the possibility and advisability of legalising sterilisation under proper safeguards in certain cases.

Tho document is signed by fifty distinguished representatives of the Church, the law, and the medical profession, including Sir FarquharBuzzard, tho King’s Physician. Sir A. Fripp, the King’s Surgeon, points out that sterilisation has been legalised in twenty-three States in America, and in Denmark, Norway and Czecho-Slovakia.

The need for the inquiry is urgent in England, as largely owing to State intervention, thousands of diseased and deficient persons are kept alive. He adds that segregation has failed.