MENTAL HYGIENE TO BE STUDIED.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18959, 3 January 1930, Page 11

MENTAL HYGIENE TO BE STUDIED.

INVESTIGATIONS ARE NOW WIDESPREAD.

In May next there will be held at Washington an international congress on mental hygiene, which will be attended by the leading authorities of the world on mental diseases. The following interesting article is contributed by the New Zealand National Council for Mental Hygiene. “The problem of mental disease has never been adequately tackled, and the problem of prevention, until recently, almost not at all.” This statement is made in a recent text-book by Dr D. K. Henderson, Lecturer in Psychological Medicine, University of Glasgow, and Dr R. D. Gillespie, Physician for Psychological Medicine, Guys Hospital, London. These authorities proceed to state that the existing provision is largely out of date; and even in the matter of institutional accommodation there appears to be an urgent need for addition and extension in every country. The question arises whether we are dealing with the problem in the best way; whether it is not steadily growing greater because the right measures are taken too late. It would be no small reward for our labours if it could be shown that by beginning further back, by treating the causes of mental disorder and of its companions and consequences, criminality, vice, alcoholism, poverty, unemployment, and the like, we could render unnecessary much of the misery, money-spending, and machinery which these disasters presently entail. This desirable goal can only be reached by an intense and systematic study throughout the country in a well-conceived scheme, and with all the means at our command of the causation of mental disorders. Little or no extra equipment would be required. What is necessary is to point out the way, to obtain co-operation between authorities, and to spread information as to the best means and lines of investigation. Action in Great Britain. Such a step has been taken in Great Britain by the formation of such organisations as the British National Council for Mental Hygiene and the Scottish Association for Mental Welfare. In the United States, where the mental hygiene movement owes its origin and much of its success to Clifford W. Beers, himself once a patient in a mental hospital there, every State in Union has its mental hygiene committee. Under its auspices, and with the co-operation of out-patient clinics in general hospitals, education authorities who compile accurate school records, charitable organisations, poorlaw authorities, and trained social service workers, a great deal is being done towards the prevention of mental disorder, and the education of the public in matters in which it is not too much to say, it has hitherto been kept in utter ignorance. Enlightened Public Opinion. The British National Council for Mental Hygiene, states the “ British Medical Journal,” has entered wholeheartedly during the last six years on its special task of building up an enlightened public opinion in relation to mental disorder. The council' seeks to improve the mental health of the community, and to this end it endeavours to control the prevailing ignorance and superstition regarding the true nature of mental disorder which so seriously hamper the work of those concerned with the treatment of the mentally afflicted. Recognising that factors both hereditary and environmental are responsible for the production of criminality, dependency, vagrancy, delinquency and prostitution, the council maintains that these social evils can be effectively combated only if the relative significance and the mode of operation of the causative factors are adequately understood. According it proposes : (1) To promote a critical study of the social habits, industrial life and environments of the people, with a view to eradicating these factors. (2) To investigate the various causes, physical and psychological, underlying failure in social adjustment. (3) To consider the extent to ■which clinical psychology may contribute towards the elucidation of the problems of habitual criminality. (4) From the standpoint of prophylaxis, most important of all, to study the mental hygiene of child life in relation to education and parental responsibility. Steps Taken in New Zealand. Seized with the importance of the mental hygiene movement, the medical faculty of the University of Otago three years ago brought about the formation of the Otago Society for mental Hygiene, which bodyworks on the lines of the parent organisation in Great Britain. The Otago society felt that the movement should be national in character, and therefore took the responsibility of initiating the New Zealand National Council for Neutral Hygiene, which was inaugurated in Wellington on February 20, 1929. The aims and objects of the New Zealand National Council follow closely those of the National Council in Great Britain. International Committee. There are now in existence national committees or councils for mental hygiene in some twenty-six different countries, including all the British dominions. In February, 1919, the initial suggestions was made by Clifford W. Beers, of America, for the formation of an International Committee for Mental Hygiene, and an organising committee was set up to further the object. Mr Beers is the author of the classic, “ A Mind that Found Itself,” the publication of which was a factor in leading to the institution and endowment of the Phipps Psychiatric Clinic of John Hopkins Hospital, of Baltimore—one of the world’s foremost psychiatric clinics. A Concerted Movement. A- mental hygiene congress was held in Paris in May, 1922, under the auspices of the French League for Mental Hygiene, which generously set aside an international congress which it had tentatively planned to hold at Paris, to enable the first International Congress to be held in the United States. In December, 1922, the Organising Committee almost perfected its plans for holding the congress in that year. It was found, however, that much spade work was required to be done in backward countries. The Organising Committee met in Paris in June, 1927, and in New York City in November, 1928, and definitely finalised arrangements, as a result of which the First International Congress on Mental Hygiene will be held in Washington in May next, at which twenty-six different countries will be represented. Sir Truby King is one of the honorary vice-presidents, and Dr Theodore Gray (Wellington), Dr Marshall Macdonald (Dunedin) and Dr A. R. Falconer (Dunedin) are among the members of the Organising Committee. At this congress the Inter-

national Committee for Mental Hygiene will be inaugurated, which will serve as a centre for international mental hygiene activities. Objectives Outlined. Preliminary to the congress, a survey of the status of mental hygiene work in the various countries is being undertaken. The survey will include the mental hygiene aspects of the following subjects: Law, hospitals, clinics, industry, framing of personnel, methods and technique of community education, statistics and administration. This material will be circulated in advance among the various delegates, in order that the delegates may be able to prepare themselves as thoroughly as possible. The objectives of the congress Include, as above stated, the organisation of an international mental hygiene agency, also possible agreement upon a practical mental hygiene programme adapted to the conditions in various countries, mutual acquaintance, personally as well as professionally, exchange of information and experience, discussion of differing viewpoints, and a possible general agreement upon mental hygiene objectives as representing the working aims of the organised mental hygiene movement. It is of the greatest importance that New Zealand be adequately represented at this congress, which seeks to alleviate and control “ man’s last spectre—mental disorder.”