DANGER OF DRIFT

Northern Advocate, 22 February 1926, Page 6

DANGER OF DRIFT

INCIPIENT “MENTAL” CASES. THE VITAL EARLY PERIOD. PREVENTIVE PRINCIPLE. Since Ills appointment as Minister of Health, the Hon. J. A. Young has applied himself intensively to the work of his department, and has been impressed with the importance’ of preventive medicine, particularly in a direction in 'which the preventive principle has been not sufficiently emphasised, viz., mental disease. The preventive principle ion mental disease goes back to eugenics and to the various considerations that found notice in the report of the Commission on Mental Defectives; but that aspect of prevention with which Mr. Young is immediately concerned may be summed up as early treatment. Few I sufferers of bodily ills gain so much by early treatment as does the mental patient; still fewer lose as much as ho does by lack of early treatment. And yet—such is the unwarranted sense of shrinking from a mental diagnosis!—the poor “mental” often has loss chance than almost any other patient of obtaining at the right stage the vitally necessary advice and care. Herein lies much of the tragedy of nervous affections and mental breakdowns. Mr. Young is frankly out to remove i this- obstacle. To do so it is necessary t combat the idea that there is any “disgrace” in mental distress, land also to combat the fear that persons who came under the department’s care go to harsh conditions, or cheerless conditions, or to mind-destroying “common herd” conditions. None of these things happen. CURE IN SIX MONTHS, OR-^ —? The department is adopting measures of preliminary treatment in detached villas or units, and is establishing conditions of all possible appropriateness, in order to instil in the public mind confidence in the humanity and efficiency of the treatment, j Without such confidence, early diagnoses and treatment are hard to obtain. How vital they are is indicated in a striking manner in the follwing statement by the Minister;—“My experts assure me that if a cure is not effected or within sight within six months of the patient’s entry into the home or hospital, the chances of ultimate recovery become very remote.” Couple this remarkable testimony to early treatment with another state ment by Mr. Young: “Of the 500 b persons now in our mental institutions, I am assured that not more than 100 are sensitive, curable patients.” So 4900 or thereabouts are beyond cure. But if there had been early diagnosis and treatment in all cases many might never have reached the hopeless ranks of the 4900. Mr. Young told a “Dominion” re-1 porter that in order to give confidence in the department’s treatment and remove the reluctance of relatives and frinds to face what is still regarded as an ordeal—though in modern practice it is not such —he wished to impress on the public the steps that had been and that wore being taken. To secure early and effective treatment the Government had established and was extending the villa system in connection with all the leading mental hospitals of the Dominion, whereby people in the early stages of mental trouble might be received and placed in conditions of healthy and pleasant surroundings, with gardens, flowers, trees, with plenty of fresh air. They would be under no restriction, but under direction; congenial occupation would be offered, picnics, outings, gardening, books; everything would bo done to secure the very important purpose of building up the physical strength, so that the return of mental strength mifrht fe’low. A CALL FOE CONFIDENCE. “In order to prevent curable eases from reaching a less curable or incurable stage,” said the Minister, “it is necessary to establish in the minds of the people confidence in the mental hospital system, so that relatives and

friends will be not unwilling but eager to obtain early advice, by going cither to the large general hospitals, or to a mental institution. It is necessary to remove the dread that the average citizen feels for mental hospitals—a dread which loads to persons in the incipient stages of mental trouble being allowed to drift till they are broken down to such an extent that they require to be committed by legal process (instead of going as voluntary patients), and they thus enter the institution at a, stage when the prospect of recovery is very much less than would otherwise be the case.” Mr. Young stressed the fact that the 1 villas (or reception-places) would be quite separate from main mental institutions, and would be out of sight thereof, and not in any form of contact with other patients. All suggestion of disgrace must be eliminated. The public psychology towards mental j disease should bo the same as towards bodily disease. CIVILISATION ’S BURDEN. I “Preventive medicine shows that it I lies with ourselves to possess health,” said the Minister. “It is necessary to dispe.' ignorance of the simple rules of health—an ignorance attaching to the so-called rich as well as the socalled poor. Preventive medicine is a campaign against ignorance, and it begins with the babe—in fact, it begins before that by teaching antenatal care. Preventive medicine, if followed out, will greatly reduce ho’s pitals and curative institutions, and will build up a virile race. The more bodily health, the less mental trouble, and the fewer mental hospitals. I have been at pains to see all I can of mental hospitals; I have been to j Porirua, to the two Nelson institutions, to Sunnyside, to Hornby. I have! lately visited the general hospitals in Nelson, Pieton, Blenheim, and Christ-1 church, and the neurasthenic hospital | at Hanmer. I have been impressed j with civilisation’s burden—largely | pre vendible—in this respect, and feel that here would be much less burden I if we were living right. Ignorance is the enemy of health and progress, and I hope that I may be able to do something to dispel ignorance, to impart a better knowledge of the good work of the Department, and thereby to enable the Department—through the public’s confidence—to do still better work.” Mr. Young concluded by commenting in terms of satisfaction on the increasing percentage of voluntary boarders, and on the benefit they were receiving from the Department.