MENTAL DEFECTIVES’ BOARD.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20642, 14 February 1929, Page 13

MENTAL DEFECTIVES’ BOARD.

A TALK ON ITS WORK. Some of the difficulties ahead of the new Mental Defectives Board were explained, in fin interview with a represen- j tative of the Christchurch Press, by .Miss j Jean Begg, one of the two women mem- • ] hers appointed to the board. > Miss Begg ; spoke with natural reticence of the functions of the new board, as it had not met so far, and the .only opinions she could give were personal ones, not necessarily the official policy .of the board. “ One good 1 thing about the board,” said Miss Begg, “ is that its policy is left undermined by the Act. When It meets and reviews the position each department Wll deal with the question.” When various editorial criticisms of the press on the Mental Defectives Act, such as the vagueness of its definition of *■ antisocial” and “mental-defective,” and the danger of .instituting, an index without strict definition of those who should be eligible for it, were pointed out to Miss Begg, she explained that the board was really created to give the right diagnosis in cases brought before it. No one could be run in to the board, so to speak. It existed to help anyone aboq£ whom advice was needed. It was the concern of the school, the social worker, the welfare officer, and the court to seek its aid on behalf of any particular case. The first name suggested for the board had been the Eugenics Board, but this had been abandoned for Hoard of Control.

THE CLINICS. “ When the board begins to function,”said Miss Begg, “it will have to ; do seevral things. . The first will be to establish clinics of experts to investigate and diagnose, and recommend .for treatment those who are recommended to it. This does not necessarily mean putting people on a register,” .Miss Begg emphasised. She. did not know how they, would begin to compile the register, but it would be proceeded with very cautiously. She could not imagine how anyone could be’ placed on the register without the utmost caution and strong - recommendation - by experts. “ The. majority of the cases dealt with by tho clinics,” said Miss Begg, “ will not be placed on the' register at all.” The board was to be mainly advisory'and to help in the specification of the right treatment of cases before it.' It would advise about suitable occupations. The aim and abject of the board, would be fo keep as many as possible in the community, not as anti-social persons, but as social “assets. In all probability the social worker would figure largely in the care of this kind of person.. “ I have always ■ been interested in social work,” Miss Begg said in answer to an inquiry. Prom 1919-21 she was at the New York School of Social Work, and specialised in, psychiatric social work. The psychiatrist could not go to work without complete social investigation of his client. It meant contact not only with the family of the patient, but required, knowledge of all the persons with whom the patient -had made contact and of his reactions to them. ■ She had had three years’ experience as executive secretary of a large" organisation dealing with - delinquent girls and children. This gave her an extensive knowledge ; almost every case' was what Dr T. Gray described as a .social defective. Mental defect was almost always found to be the principal cause of their abnormal behaviour. Some were kept in the community, others were sent to , schools for the feeble-minded, and btiers, again, to small farm Colonies, where they were trained- according to their mental ability and parolled back from the’ colony*into normal life. -The measure of success; she said, lay in the calibre and training' of the social worker and her-skill in the care of the girl after she was-back in the community. She had been dealing chiefly with girls and young children of both sexes.

“The social worker is coming into her own 'and being recognised as a - professional person,” said Miss Begg, “ and she has her scientific point of view in these social problems.” Miss Begg hoped fp give the work her greatest attention; the position was, of course,- purely' honorary.