MENTALLY DEFICIENT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 18225, 19 October 1922, Page 8

MENTALLY DEFICIENT.

NEED FOR MID-WAY HOMES. FACTOR IN EFFECTING CUBE SUPPORT, BY THE SYNOD. The necessity for reforming certain conditions affecting the mentally .f"**-™ urged by the Anglican Synod JV*Wj With a view to alleviating the lot of mentally deficient persona and <k<ajeaiw* th« number of inmatea of mental ho« pit*, the Bar. H. Masom od St. Mary's Homes, recommend for consideration by the uov. ernment department concerned ihe estabiishment Of homes of mental rest, where suitable patients could be c«wf g* *f bo under P obs«rvation before committal to I mental hofflUl. The proposal said the mover, would be of special be " efifc Jf poor and friendless people ™ able to find sanctuary in private hemes. Owitur to lack of fundi! and accommodSn a deplorable absence. of cUsstfca*Sprcvffl in these hospitals, and no one regretted it more than thef u P P e n ufrSS in charge. Many, gegj wjj eent to the hospitals for ™Vtßd in the ordinary course of events wouia be cured in a short space tinlc Mui way home* for this type of Person had been recommended by numbers of magistrates. but the Government turned a deaf ear because very many people faded to Sise the need, and those, people who had been through the hospitals and>new he conStionfe were averse to acquamtmg the world with their wjourn there .Even when such people did recount then experiences theT were ft because of the taint of mental Shortasre of money surely should not SandTn the way of the establishment of mid-way homes. A permanent patient was a treat expense on the country. He was confident from the opinions expressed by doctors and magistrates that many of thofee who were now sent to mental hospitals would be Able to feturn home at the- end of a month's time if they were sfent to mid-way rest' homes. The motion was seconded by the Rev. J. L. Greer. ■ ■ ; Mr. A. E, H. Hftrnson said that large numbers of returned soldiers were now in mental hospitals throughout tbe Dominion who certainly ought to be nomewhere else.- ■- • The Rev. G. Gordon Bell stated that an authority in Enttland had pointed out that the term "mental hospital" wis misleading, in that practically no treatment was carried out there. They were really asylums. He believed the return of many persons from these hospitals to their homes cured of their affliction was delaved because association with badly afflicted inmatea aggravated their condition. ■.'.,' * ' The motion was carried.