H—7

1949 NEW ZEALAND

MENTAL HOSPITALS OF THE DOMINION (REPORT ON) FOR 1948

Presented to Both Houses of the General Assembly Pursuant to Section 79 of the Mental Defectives Act, 1911

The Hon. M. B. Howard, Minister in Charge of Mental Hospitals, Wellington. Madam, — 16th June, 1949. I have the honour to present my annual report upon the work of the Mental Hygiene Division of the Health Department for the year ended 31st December, 1948. Statistical At the end of the year there were 9,270 names of persons upon the registers of the Division, including 67 patients at Ashburn Hall private licensed institution and 855 patients who were absent on probation in the care of their relatives and friends. In actual residence in Government hospitals on 31st December there were 8,352 persons, an increase of 85 as compared with a year before, and of this number 7,905 were subject to a reception order and 373 were voluntary boarders. Admissions for the first time of patients and boarders totalled 1,709, a decrease of 38 compared with the previous year. It has continued to occur that voluntary boarders form an increasing proportion of total admissions to our hospitals. Of all classes of admissions, 1,536 were discharged, or 67-37 per cent, calculated on the number admitted. Although impossible to consider that all persons discharged were fully recovered, it is considered that 4649 had so recovered. The fact that a good proportion of persons are discharged " relieved " indicates the willingness of medical officers to allow their patients to return to the care of relatives and friends when they can be cared for by them.