“Taking The Sting” Out Of Mental Illness

Press, Volume C, Issue 29509, 10 May 1961, Page 21

“Taking The Sting” Out Of Mental Illness

It was still urgent to “take the sting out of mental illness” by helping the public to realise that there was no stigma in mental troubles, Mrs Roberta Tatom, a counselling psychologist from Los Angeles, told the annual meeting of the Canterbury Association for Mental Health on Monday night. “Mental illness, even when it reaches the stage of requiring treatment in a mental hospital, is often curable, and in any case can be alleviated,” she said. People should be careful to help folk who had mental anxieties. It was only too easy to drive them into mental illness. Relatives of mentally ill persons often worried in case the trouble might prove hereditary, Mrs Tatom added. It was true that there might be a weakness within a family towards some form of mental illness, but this certainly did not mean that every member of the family would share the weakness, let alone succumb to it. Often, moreover, an environmental factor might operate through several generations, or on more than one branch of a family. Marriage counselling was an important part of mental health, and so was pre marital counselling. Often it contributed greatly to future mental health to point out the inappropriateness of a proposed marriage. Phychiatrists were very scarce in the United States, and were becoming scarcer. A consultation with a psychiatrist could cost up to £lO an hour. “Meetings a Mania" “Convening meetings to convene meetings to arrange conferences is a mania among us New Zealanders. I know men who spend five nights a week at meetings." Mr G. K. Whisher said in the business part of the meeting. The association should be doing things rather than just talking, he said. Its active projects during the last year had been excellent. but there had been too few of them. Previously. Mrs E. Myers had spoken in the same vein. “What are we doing? Would you tell us?” she asked the president (Professor H. E. Field). “We can’t have an association with just a commit, tee.” she said. “We ordinary members do not know what the association has been concerned with, except beauty parlours and legal work.” Mrs Myers asked for a regular newsletter to members. Reform “Basic” Professor Field said that the work of the legal committee under Professor H. R. Gray was an outstanding contribution to mental health in New Zealand. Reform of the law on mental health was basic to advance. The association's work on beauty parlours, the special interest of the secretary (Miss H. Melville) could also be very important. Mr Whisher endorsed Mrs Myers’s plea for a newsletter. and also asked for a library where anxious persons could find help and those generally interested in

mental health could gain knowledge to help others. He moved motions asking the incoming committee to seek funds for a newsletter and for a library. Mrs Myers seconded the motions, and they were passed without dissent. Mr L. H. Booth suggested that there should be popu-larly-elected boards of control for mental hospitals in the same way as for other hospitals. He would like to see the idea discussed within the association. If it appeared sound, it could be made the subject of a remit to the national conference. Officers elected were:— President. Professor H. R. Gray; vice-presidents. Professor H. E. Field and Dr. P. Cook; secretary, Miss H. Melville; treasurer, Mrs S. McWhirter; committee. Dr. J Ballin, Dr. J. R. E. Dobson. Dr. J. J. Small. Dr. T. O’Brien, Dr. R. Vallet. Mrs H. Wales. Messrs L. H. Booth, D. C. McKechnie and H. E. Cohen.