MENTAL PATIENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19384, 20 July 1926, Page 12

MENTAL PATIENTS.

NEED FOR HUMANE VIEW, j MISCONCEPTION OF PUBLIC. EXPERIENCE OF AN EXPERT. An intimate'pictttre of the conduct of patients in mental hospitals was given at the Rotary Club luncheon yesterday by Dr. ,T. G. . Gray, Inspector-General of Mental Hospitals, in making an appeal for a more sympathetic attitude toward the treatment of mental patients. Ancient prejudices, he said, had led to" the accumulation of innumerable weird misconceptions of the term lunacy, The term itself was somewhat illogical, as it was just as erroneous to classify all mental diseases as lunacy as it would be to call all diseases in the lower part of the body abdominal " and treat them in the same way. " Generally speaking, there is no such thing as mental disease that is not associated with physical disease, just as there is no physical disease that does not show mental symptoms," Dr. Grey added. He gave as instances delirium in pneumonic cases, ill temper in gout, and the " blues" that came with the familiar influenza. The difference between such conditions and " mental cases " was one of degree. "Like One of Ourselves," He illustrated a further point by relating a humorous experience that befel him when he took over the control of the Nelson Mental Hospital 20 years ago. A patient greeted him on arrival with the assurance that he preferred Dr. Gray to the "doctor whom he had succeeded. " But I understood that the late doctor was very well liked,," said Dr. Gray. "Yes," was the reply, "but you are more like one of ourselves-! " (Laughter). " There is a good deal of truth in that," continued Dr. Gray. Mental patients are not so very unlike ourselves, and we are not so very unlike the patients in most matters." He confessed that when he first undertook mental work he had the idea that a patient was dangerous and was always looking for a favourable opportunity to escape and to exhibit homicidal tendencies. He was to learn that dangerous cases were in the minority; that their tastes for literature and other amenities of life differed little if at all from those of normal people, and that they were capable of chivalry, kindness and . consideration, and in some cases heroic selfsacrifice. Mistakes of the Past, When it was recollected that as recently as 1822 an insane woman was burned as a witch in Scotland by order of the sheriff, and that to-day there were still mental hospitals that looked more like gaols, it was, : not hard to realise that patients quickly became dangerous under the old order. A ,sane man, deprived of associations that were regarded as the necessities of life, would become dangerous under the same circumstances. The lecture was given as the result of a proposal that the members should interest themselves in the entertainment of mental patients, and Dr. Gray said he left the form the 'entertainments should take to their own discretion. He said no advice was needed as to how they should approach' the patients. ''Treat them as normal men and womerij; which they are in most matters, and the result will be quite happy," he said. Mr. Kenneth Mackenzie conveyed the club's thanks tc Dr. Gray for his address. It had* "beeti 'most he' Said, and he felt that there were many medical men who needed eniiglitenfrient' as much as the lay public. s " •