THE BROTHERLY WAY

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 80, Issue 252, 23 October 1937, Page 8

THE BROTHERLY WAY

PHYSICAL AND MENTAL WELFARE CO-ORDINATION OF SOCIAL SERVICES. 111. Dear People, “All great minds think alike” is merely to say in a homely way that instances of the simultaneous projection of new and important principles, spontaneously and independently, into the minds of widely distant thinkers, is no new occurrence. Each of the sciences can furnish a number of such examples; and particularly in the social sciences at the present time a number of the leading thinkers of the world are advancing almost identical views at practically the same time. Their utterances may be summarised in a few words; they point to the urgent need for co-ordination of the social services of the various nations of the world, in the interests of health, peace and amicable international relationships. It is universally recognised that any avoidable overlapping of one social service over another is a waste of the world's most valuable form of man and woman power. It is still more poignantly realised that at the other end of the scale, the “gaps” that are permitted to exist between the close of the operations of one social service and the beginnings of another are responsible for much preventible disease, unhappiness, insanity, delinquency and death.

For the Sake of the Child! The sad and sorry result of the toleration of a number of No. Man’s Lands on the fringes of important social services and which at present are apparently not the responsibility of any existing authority, is that the child slips through per medium of these dangerous territories. He slips through, to the hospital, to the children’s court, to the special school, or to the grave. Early ascertainment of the child’s physical and mental status by a board of co-ordinated social sciences would confer greater benefits upon the nation than would a doubled birth rate. During the past quarter of a century, infant mortality in New Zealand has been more than halved. But what has lappened to many of the lives thus laved to the nation? By the thousand, they are slipping through the No Man’s Land of neglect to ascertain their vital needs in respect of health-, of character, of mental stability. It is suggested that the No Man’s Land at present existing in the administration of our school medical services should be met by the appointment of additional psychiatrists, as well as by the inclusion upon each education authority of one or more trained psychologists. As to the No Man’s Land in which the pretchool child exists, the League of Nations recommends that the school medical services "extend” their operations backward a little, and that the maternity and child-welfare organisations equip themselves to care for children for a period beyond two years of age. Six per cent, of all NeuZealand children under five years of age are sent, for longer or shorter terms, into the public hospitals; and that this circumstance may not by any means be regarded in the way of being “preventive medicine" is confirmed by the records of the child’s later years, for he is going into our ssylums at double the rate and into the public hospitals at three times the rate that obtained 25 years ago.

For the Sake of Liberty! Because co-ordination involves collective action, it does not mean the suppression of individual liberty, either on the part of organisations, departments, communities or persons. The impulse to co-ordination of social services in fact primarily an im-

pulse to the preservation of our liberties. The ultimate objective of coordination of social services is to facilitate the flowering of whatever genius, talent or other personal attribute which may be possessed by the individual, to the end that he may be enabled to express his personality more fully, with prolit to himself and his world. Co-ordination is merely a scientific and an evolutionary necessity, in view of the problems facing civilisation to-day. Nowhere in the field of science is the question of values of more importance than in social problems. Civilisation depends for its preservation upon an expanding knowledge of the social as well as of the physical sciences. For the Sake of the Race! It is already generally recognised that the world cannot hope to solve its social problems by rule of thumb, or by the operation of isloated units of social service. As a matter of fact, the stage at which the social services have at present arrived calls for the creative imagination of a Newton or a Maxwell, an Edison or a Marconi. Obsolescence is a factor in social as well as in industrial machinery! Coordination would give that urgently needed impetus Io the true progress of civilisation for which the rapidly deteriorating physical and mental trends of the world are crying out. Dr. R. B. Cattell, in his book “The Fight for Intelligence,” is emphatic in his statement that civilisation is in danger of being swamped beneath vast numbers of citizens of inferior quality. It is therefore not only in numbers that the birth rate must advance, if the white races are not to lose their dominant lead in evolution. It is a mistake now being macle by many well-respected authorities to discuss only the statistical side of the population question and to omit considerations of quality. A board of co-ordinated social services—whether it be a social service Statutory Committee, or an extended Social Service Bureau, or a comprehensive nonParty Health Board representative of all departments and all sciences concerned with the physical and mental welfare of the nation—would be in a position to point out the weaknesses that exist in our present social administration. Until such a step is taken, our human resources will continue to escape through various No Man’s Lands and to persist in creating costly problems for the race.