MENTAL DEFECTIVES

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 7865, 29 July 1911, Page 4

MENTAL DEFECTIVES

PROVISIONS OP THE NEW BILL. ANNUAL EE VIEW OF COMMITMENT OEDEBS. The consolidating and . amending Bill dealing with the mentally defective, introduced by the HonS. Goorg© Fowlds, Minister in charge of Hoepltals, aims at a simplification of the procedure in dealing with lunatics, and •will remove eoccno existing anomalies. There aa*c many dog-roes of mental -weakness, but the present law imposes too narrow an Interpretation by setting out to deal eimply with "lunacy.” Many aocaJled lunatics simply require protection and care at intervals, and there are others who, through age, oro feeble-minded, but not lunatic. To meet the various grades of mental weakness, the Bill eoeka to impose a new classification, which ia substantially in, consonance, with the recommendations of the English Itoyal Commleaicn on the care of Feeh Ih-minded Persona. A new feature is that which provides for the recognition of "voluntary patients” .by mental hospital authorities. Persons who need occasional oversight, and recognise this, will bo able to arrange for this protection without undergoing the ordeal of being formally committed as a lunatic. Power is to bo taicftn to provide special institutions for voluntary patients. Once a lunatic is committed there is no Ktahatory provision for regular review of his condition with the object of testing fitness for discharge. In actual practice, the authorities have regularly reviewed case* and certified to the noed for continued restraint, if necessary. It will bo made a statutory obligation upon mental hospital authorities to annually certify on this point. There is provision for , the control of private asylums, similar to that already in force,. and a considerable number erf sections dealing with general administrative matters, including the administration by the Public Trustee o! the estates of mentally defective persons, are to b* found in the BilL