MENTAL DISABILITY

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22620, 7 January 1937, Page 13

MENTAL DISABILITY

Sir,—lb is encouraging to note the letters of 15. 10. Vaughan, "Overseas," "Cygnet" and "Progressive" in regard to the possible prevention of incipient mental and moral disability. At the present time, certain nations arc making (they hope) short shrift of the rank growth of tho<-e nervous diseases of civilisation which are manifesting themselves in expanding armies of the unemployable, the helpless feebleminded, the neurotic subject, and the anti-social entity. It may come as a surprise to the general reader to learn that large bodies of social workers in New Zealand also partake of the attitude of mind that incipient mental disability is not to be classed as a disease at all, but as a "social problem," and therefore not amenable to preventive measures, unless by the drastic methods in use in the dictatorship countries The "social problem" is itself created by a policy of nonprevention in the early stages of the disability; and a child suffering from either physical or mental disability as a result of malnutrition, lack of sleep or cleanliness or fresh air, together with a want of correct psychological attention, will not fail to produce a first-class "social problem" in the shape of a vigorous functional disease, either physical or mental. Appeals have been made liv the four writers above-named to the National Council of Women to interest themselves in the question of prevention of disability; but so long as the mistaken attitude persists that mental deficiency (not mental disease) is not to be classed as a disease at all, the possibility of prevention cannot he expected to carry much weight. Sanguine.