MENTAL PATIENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVI, Issue 17268, 18 September 1919, Page 7

MENTAL PATIENTS.

AN INTERMEDIATE HOME. USE OF WOLFE BEQUEST. [BY TELEGRAPH. SPECIAL REPORTER.] WELLINGTON. Wednesday. A question which the Government has been asked to answer is whether it will consider the advisability of erecting an " intermediate asylum " in Auckland to meet a long-felt and pressing want, where patients in a temporary state of mental derangement could be placed and cared for under better conditions than at present, and with much better prospects of recovery. To this the Prime Minister replied : The Wolfe bequest hospital, Auckland, was for a time placed at the disposal of the Defence Department for the care and treatment of soldier patients whose condition approximated that of the class to which the question relates. Altogether 45 (nine from camps and 36 returned soldiers) were treated here. Six had to be placed under reception orders and 69 were discharged, 37 as recovered.

It being decided that all soldier patients needing such special treatment were to be sent to one nlace namely, Anaac House Hospital, Karitane, the Wolfe Hospital now reverts to its former use, a reception house in connection with the mental hospital. It is eminently suitable for persons labouring under less pronounced forms of mental disorder, and only awaits painting, etc., and staffing. The main essentials for anv such institution are medical specialists and a trained nursing staff, factors which in this country cannot be provided satisfactorily apart trom mental hospitals. That the existing reception houses are doing the work of an " intermediate asylum " may be gauged by the fact that last year 104 voluntary boarders were under treatment, a daily average of 34.