REST HOMES.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 228, 26 September 1929, Page 8

REST HOMES.

MUCH NEEDED INSTITUTIONS, VIEWS OF MR. F. K. HUNT, S.M. BOARD OF CONTROL SUGGESTED. "I think the proposal of the Government to establish rest homes is a firstclass idea," said Mr. F. K. Hunt, S.M., when asked his views to-day. That such institutions have been wanted for some time, he said, had been recognised by magistrates. The trouble has always been what to cla with old, senile, and half-witted people, as well as vagrants. Some of the latter class simply cannot keep themselves, and at the present time there is nowhere to put them excepting in gaol. Yet they arc not actually criminals. Of course, it was' necessary to remove them from the streets, but gaol was not the proper., place for some of them. "My idea," said Mr. Hunt, "is that rest homes should be established on islands in the Gulf, and they should not be under the care of the Hospital Board, or any particular church. The Hospital Board has now quito enough to .attend to, and no creed should have management of an institution to which people of any religion may be sent. In the rest home I visualise, senile and halfwitted people might find a haven where they could also do a little work to occupy their time, and help towards their maintenance. It costs £2 2/ a week to maintain people in the gaol or the hospital, but the Salvation Army manage to keep them at Rotoroa Island for £1 per week. Wandering Vagrants. "The problem of wandering vagrants is a difficult one for magistrates to deal with. Some of these vagrants cannot be sent to the asylum, though they may be too weak mentally to maintain themselves. Still, such cases should not be sent to the gaols. "In my opinion rest homes should be managed by separate boards of control,, consisting of a magistrate, the maintenance officer (who is S. sort of liaison officer between the Court), and social workers. Then there should bo three solid business men, free from any particular fads. It would be as well if the secretary of such a board was a clerk of the Magistrate's Court. Suclx

a board could get advice frogi various social workers in carrying on the work. My idea is that the members of the board of control should be paid for their time just as directors of companies are." Wing for Tired Women. "I have another idea .about the rest homes; it is that there should be a wing for tired women who are worn out with child-bearing, with their nerves all frayed. Such cases cannot go to the Wolfe Home until their nerves have gone over the edge. My idea is that many of these women could go into a rest home, and receive kindly attention. They might be saved from going over the edge, and perhaps prevented from becoming permanent mental cases. Any magi-, strate in a big city dealing with cases of destitute persons knows only too well the need there is for the establishment of rest homes. Medical attention might, j perhaps, be provided, cither from the hospital or the mental institution. I am quite sure that rest homes on ...ii lines I have visualised would relieve the Mental Hospital from a number of cases that have to be sent there for lack of some other place for them to be cared for. I sincerely hope the Government will push forward its proposal to establish these rest homes."