UNDER RESTRAINT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 21068, 30 December 1931, Page 12

UNDER RESTRAINT.

CARE OF MENTAL PATIENTS. THE DANGEROUS TYPE. DIRECTOR-GENERAL'S VIEWS. Dangerous patients in mental hospitals constitute a special problem, especially in view of the overcrowding in various institutions at the present time. For this reason, it is strongly urged by the Director-General of Mental Hospitals, Dr. T. G. Gray, in his annual report, -that a separate institution should bp. erected for these patients to serve the whole Dominion. "With the gradual extension of parole and the 'open door' system in our mental hospitals, it is becoming increasingly desirable that a separate institution to serve the needs of the whole Dominion should bo erected for the safe custody of dangerous patients," says Dr. Gray. "By 'dangerous patient,' 1 do not necessarily refer to the so-called 'criminal lunatic,' ant! 1 do not suggest the establishment of an institution like Broadmoor, in England, to which those acquitted of serious crime on account of insanity would bo automatically committed "The great majority of those committed to our care under the part of the Act dealing with criminals are not violent or dangerous patients if provided with proper occupation, environment, and treatment, and, instead of causing any trouble or anxiety in our institutions, they are not infrequently among the most amenable and industrious of our patients. On the other hand, in every institution there is a small proportion of patients whose hallucinations, persecutory ideas, sexual, fire-rais-ing, or other abnormal proclivities render them a source of great danger to their fellow-inmates, and to the staff while in the institution, and to the community if they happen to escape. "The results of their detention in an ordinary mental hospital are doubly unfortunate. In the, first place, they render necessary structural precautions and restrictions which could otherwise be dispensed with to the benefit and increased liberty of the other patients, and, secondly, they have themselves to bo guarded and restrained with a strictness which could be mitigated in an institution specially designed for the needs of this small group. The number for whom this purely custodial care requires to be provided is not large—certainly not more than 100—but their segregation in this way would be of manifest advantage to the ordinary run of patients in our mental hospitals."