MENTAL HOSPITALS.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume VII, Issue 2046, 4 September 1920, Page 8

MENTAL HOSPITALS.

DOMINION'S SYSTEM DISCUSSED. I From Our Own Parliamentary Reporter.] WELLINGTON, September .3. Mental hospital affaire were briefly discussed in the House of Bepresentatives this afternoon, when the vote of £250,781 on the Estimates for that suitdepartment was being considered in Committee of Supply. Mr G. Witty (Ricearton) pleaded, the ease of the mental hospital attendants, and asked that their service in those institutions should count as time and a-half for the purposes of superannnuation. If more land wore acquired for the farm of the Sunnyside Mental Hospital, that institution could be made to support itself, or even to return a profit. Br A. K. Newman (Wellington East) asked if the Minister would consider the establishment of a type of convalescent home for mental patients who were moving rapidly on the road to recovery. The homes could be run as annexes of the main mental hospitals. The Hon. C. J. Parr (Minister of Public Health) said that he would be very pleased to take into consideration the suggestion regarding the superannuation of mental hospital attendants. A great deal had been done of recent years in the way of classifying mental patients according to the 'severity of their affliction, so that the convalesents were now, to a very large extent, kept apart from the others. Mr 1). G. Sullivan (Avon) suggested that there were many cases of nervous trouble which it was inadvisable to commit to mental institutions. Those could be accommodated in the convalescent half-way houses suggested; or, if the Government would not consider that, it should review its decision against licensing private mental homes. ifr W. 1). Lysnar (Gisborne) recommended the setting-up of a board to review periodically the cases of all mental patients, instead of leaving that work to the hospital superintendents. Under the present system, it was difficult to get patients out of the asylums, with the result that sane men were kept the're. The Minister said that it was not a fact that people were kept in mental hospitals when they should not be there. He hoped that such an impression would not go forth from the House. Mr Lysnar: It should go forth! Mr Parr added that he was strongly against the idea of private mental hospitals. Mr Witty: Hear! hear! Don't have them! In this instance, said the Minister, he entirely agreed with the principle of nationalisation. There was :; State institution at Hornby for the milder type of cases. Mr Sullivan: That is not generally known in Christchurch! Mr Parr said that this had been established about a year ago. Mr H. Atmore suggested that it was an alarming state of affairs when New Zealand had one person of unsound mind for every 261 of the population. In 1870 he believed the proportion had been one in 580, although he quite admitted that patients who would have been let go free in 1870 were treated to-day. At the same time, the position was sufficiently serious to warrant the Government setting up an expert committee to inquire into it. The Minister said that there could be no substitute for the skilled and trained medical superintendent in determining whether a patient was fit for discharge. Only an expert could determine that. Mr Lysnar: You don't need an expert; common sense can tell! Mr Pan-: Common sense cannot tell! Mr Witty asked that, better accommodation for visitors should be made in the older buildings at Sunnyside. Friends calling to see patients should be able to do so in comfort.

Helens Hospital as saying that a disgraceful system of sweating the nurses existed there, where the hours of work were 10 or 12 per day, and the work so heavy that often nurses were unable to sleep at night, as a result. The Minister said that he bad the assurance of the Chief Health Officer that such a state of affairs did not exist. Mr Holland urged upon the nurses of the Dominion that one of the first things they should do was to form a union. Back Districts Neglected. The Minister replying to further questions raised, said that it seemed to him that many hospital boards were rather 100 intent upon building up gooil base hospitals. He did not object to that, but, while they were doing this, it appeared that the boards were rather neglecting their back districts. While not criticising the department, he believed it had erred, in the past, in not insisting that hospital boards should attend to the needs of their back territory. He was keenly alive to the responsibilities of the department in the matter of quarantine. Already he had taken an opportunity of summoning the Medical Board of Health to advise him, independent of the department. With regard to the arrival of immigrant ships having infectious diseases on board, the old system of quarantining was disappearing. In Great Britain to-day there was practically no quarantine. A ship came in, the 'patients and contacts were taken oil' to hospital, and I lien the ship was allowed to berth. All modern authorities were against the system of quarantine. Mr Parr admitted that this rather radical change did not altogether appeal to him—he might be something of a conservative—and he had asked the department to carry out such measures of protection and cure as were possible in the circumstances.