MENTAL DEFICIENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 18278, 20 December 1922, Page 11

MENTAL DEFICIENTS.

" HALF-WAY HOUSE " NEEDED

MENACE TO THE COMMUNITY

SOME STRIKING CASES.

[BY TICLEGIU.ni. —OWN COnttESrONDENT.)

CHRISTCHTJRCH, Tuesday.

The necessity of a home for mental deficients was discussed ut a meeting of the Council of Christian Congregations, and a motion was carried unanimously urging the Government to provide such homes at the earliest possible moment. The matter was introduced by Miss B. E. Baughan, who quoted the case of a girl aged 20 years, who had not developed mentally, whose brain in fact was that of a child. She was not responsible for her actions, although she was not sufficiently mentally deficient to be detained in a mental hospital. There had been a (Jovernment homo once at T© Oranga- for mentally deficient people, but although 75 per cent of the cases treated in it had been successful it had been closed up. Another case was quoted of a family of ten, of whom nine wero proved to be mentally deficient, and one, the youngest, was too" young yet for its mental state to be ascertained. The speaker hoped that the Government could be prevailed on to establish homes for the segregation of mcntallv deficient people of both sexes. The Rev. J. R. Young, speaking in support of Miss Baughan's suggestion, said it was a crime to allow such people to be at large. They were a menace to society, and should' not be allowed to propagate their species. They were spreaders of disease and. if only for this reason, they should be segregated. Ho moved that—" This council considers the provision in this country of a home for the detention of the feeble-minded is an urgent social necessity. It regards the absence of such homes as constituting both a grievous wrong to the feebleminded themselves, and also a serious menace to the moral welfare of the community. The council therefore urges UDon the Government the need of providing such homes at the earliest possible date." The Rev. J. Paterson said no doubt every minister present had one case of mental deficiency in his district. The motion was carried unanimously.