MENTAL HOSPITALS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22958, 13 August 1936, Page 9

MENTAL HOSPITALS

LACK OF ACCOMMODATION OVERCROWDING AT SEACLIFF DEPARTMENT’S ANNUAL REPORT (From Our Parliamentary Reporter) WELLINGTON, August 12. A total of 8046 persons was on the registers of mental hospitals at the end of last year, according to a report presented to Parliament to-day. The patients admitted for the first time totalled 1128. compared with 1049 for the previous year. Former boarders and patients seeking re-admission numbered 253. During the year 647 patients and boarders were discharged I but of these, the report states, only 520 could be regarded as recovered. The remainder were sufficiently well to live outside only under some degree of supervision. There were 435 deaths during the year. The actual increase in the mental hospital population of the Dominion was 232. The report draws attention to the serious shortage in accommodation. “ For many years most of our hospitals have been overprowded,” it is stated, “ and in some instances overcrowding has been serious. Attention is frequently being called to the shortage of accommodation, but no effective long-range building programme has ever been evolved to meet the inevitable increase in our population. We have had to do our best with the annual appropriations from the Public Works Fund, but even when these appropriations have appeared to be sufficient for the immediate needs it has been found most difficult to "et the money spent within the financial year, owing to the time occupied in drawing plans, calling for and accepting tenders, etc. The results of not building to meet qur annual increase in numbers are. of course, cumulative, and the position is that we have 935 patients in excess of the proper accommodation. In addition to this surplus we may anticipate an increase for the current year of about 250, so that there would normally be an excess of 1185 patients at the end of next year. To meet this we have 12 villas being built at various hospitals with a total accommodation for 500 men and women, so that the shortage will be reduced to 585 beds—a more favourable position than has existed for some vears." The report of the superintendent of the Seacliff Hospital, Dr Hayes, states that the total number of patients under care during the year was 1352 (760 male and 592 female). Of these. 112 were first admissions. The discharges totalled 50 (31 male and 19 female), of which 24 were recovered and nine were transfers. There were 66 deaths (32 male and 34 female). The principal assigned cause, of death was senile decay. Voluntary boarders under care numbered 84 (46 male and 38 female), of whom 43 (24 male and 19 female) were admitted during the year. The number of voluntary boarders discharged was 42 (22 male and 20 female), of whom 20 were recovered. At the beginning of the year there were 1218 patients and 41 boarders, and at the end 1236 patients and 31 boarders. Overcrowding, despite the reduction of 11 in the resident population, is still evident to the extent of 197 (138 males and 59 females).

“While the clinics perform useful functions in treating narcotics and inducing mild psychotics to seek mental hospital treatment early, there is a definite difficulty,’’ states the report, “in treating these cases at Seacliff. I refer to the insufficient suitable accommodation for recoverable male admissions. Clifton House, with 13 beds, caters for perhaps half of such cases, but it could be enlarged to accommodate twice that number as well as a number of convalescents. Such a proposal is contemplated for next year. “Another difficulty is the number of dangerous male criminal cases of all types. It is inevitable in these circumstances that the custodial aspect of nursing duties receives undue emphasis. When the proposed separate institution for dangerous defectives removes such cases from this hospital, then considerable improvements in the treatment, particularly with regard to airing and court conditions, could be effected.”