THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES TUESDAY, AUGUST 5, 1947. MENTAL HOSPITALS SYSTEM

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26531, 5 August 1947, Page 4

THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES TUESDAY, AUGUST 5, 1947. MENTAL HOSPITALS SYSTEM

The promise of an overhaul of the mental hospitals system, which was given by the Minister of Health in an address to the Wellington women’s branch of the Labour Party, will be welcomed both by the people of New Zealand and practitioners in psychological medicine. The yearly rate of admission to the mental institutions of the Dominion has more than doubled in the past 20 years, but accommodation and staffing alike are no longer adequate to cope with the number of patients requiring treatment. An elaborate plan of rebuilding is envisaged when circumstances and the supply of essential materials permit, but until these new premises become available, and nurses and attendants can be recruited in sufficient numbers to maintain them, the welfare of patients must continue to be adversely influenced by the inadequacies of the various institutions. The shortage of nurses continues to be a matter of grave concern. . The report of the acting Director-general for the year ended December 31, 1946, states that the rate of recruitment had failed to keep up with the drift away from the service, and in spite of the arrival of nearly 100 additional girls from Great Britain the department ,was short of 286 nurses at the end of the year. The effect of this shortage is- reflected in the reports of the superintendents of the mental hospitals throughout the Dominion, who repeatedly refer to nurses having to work long hours and to an unavoidable deterioration in the treatment provided for patients. . Some measure of relief for overworked hospital staffs can be expected from the proposed new legislation which, according to Miss Howard, will facilitate the discharge of patients considered capable of rehabilitating themselves in ordinary life. It is an unfortunate and distressing fact —and a rueful commentary on the circumstances of present day existence —that the mental institutions of the Dominion are sheltering a large number of people who haVe been thrust on the State for no other reason than that they cannot conveniently be accommodated elsewhere. Some are merely approaching senility, but lack of housing and domestic help precludes their being given proper in the homes of their relatives. Others again have entered institutions because they cannot compete successfully for existence in an industrial system in which the effort demanded in return for high rewards is beyond their mental or physical capacities. Yet this latter class of patient is capable, in the mass, of a considerable volume of production. Under proper tuition in occupational therapy they have, within their limitations, given evidence of hitherto unsuspected ability and application to work. It is, therefore, ethically wrong and economically absurd to deny them the opportunity of contributing to their own support by useful labour.