CAN LUNACY BE CURED?

Otago Witness, Issue 2928, 27 April 1910, Page 33

CAN LUNACY BE CURED?

NEW METHOD OF TREATMENT. THE WOLFE HOME. Many theories have been advanced from time to time for the treatment of patients suffering from mental diseases, but in most oases the theories have been tried with indifferent results, and then dropped. JDr R. M. Beattie, superintends of the Auckland Mental Hospital; is about to inaugurate a new treatment for certain classes of mental patients. ■ He holds (says the New Zealand Herald) that a fair proportion of persons certified to be mentally unfit, and committed to asylums, are capable of being cured; but that the system of asylum economy in the Dominion makes it more or less necessary to bring the majority of the inmates of our mental hospitals into close association, and thus preclude the chance of individual treatment. There is now in course of erection in the grounds of the Auckland Mental Hospital the Wolfe Home, whioh, when ready for use in June next, will be used for the treatment cl mental cases that may reasonably be classed as “curable.” The building is a spacious structure built somewhat like the letter Y, and arranged so that the main dormitories open direct on to wide verandahs and enclosed courtyards. The object of this arrangement is to enable patients to be wheeled on their beds direct into the open air, where' in fine weather most of their time will be spent Every part of the building is designed to provide the maximum of light and fresh air. The male and female departments are entirely apart, each containing two main dormitories, the dimensions of which are 30ft by 20ft and 24ft by 18ft respectively. _ In each section there are also seven single rooms, each with about 1000 cubic feet of air space. There is a large dining hall, 30ft by 24ft, culinary offices, separate nurses’ quarters, and a roomy suite of administrative offices. The Wolfe Home stands in spacious grounds, which will be so laid out as to give patients ©very idea of unnastricted liberty, and so disassociate from tfieir minds as far as possible the idea of a mental asylum. The home will, when complete, accommodate about 50 patients. As soon as the Wolfe Home is available for occupation. Dr Beattie' intends drafting a cartai* number of, patients from the main mental hospital who may be regarded as hopeful eases for the new treatment. So soon as the Wolfe Home is in working order, every patient on being committed to the mental hosnital will bo carefully re-m-nmed and if their eases suggest the prospects of a cure thev will enter the home, and there be treated more like hos-

T pital patients than lunatic asylum : subjects. Dr Beattie contends that in certain cases of mental derangement the trouble is only accentuated by being brought into contact with other subjects similarly afflicted 1 . By adopting a course of treatment that may, be reasonably expected to imbue the patient with the idea that he or she is merely suffering from an ailment capable of successful : treatment, Dr Beattie thinks many cases may eventually be cured. Naturally the administrative cosi of the) new mode of tieatment will be considerablyhigher than at present, but it if pointed! I out that for every patient that can be disj charged as cured the State will be saved !an expenditure of about £26_a year At the ! present time the average number of patients J received into the Auckland Mental HospiI tal is approximately 2CO a year, amd the percentage of discharges, which is the highest in the Dominion, is only 42. If this j new treatment, at a higher cost, tends to raise the percentage of discharges it will naturally mean a great saving to the State.