FROM WAR'S MENTAL STRESS

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3101, 4 June 1917, Page 8

FROM WAR'S MENTAL STRESS

INVALID SOLDIERS AT KARITANE HOME

IMPRESSIONS OF A VISIT

In recent months there have been complaints made by or on behalf of returned soldiers about the treatment by the Government of those unhappy men who como back from 'the war in abnormal mental condition, induced by the stress of active service in the field. To satisfy themselves as to tho facts of the maiter, the Wellington delegates to the Keturned Soldiers' Association Conference lately held in Dunedin paid a visit to the SeaelifS Mental Hospital and the allied institution called the Karitane Home, which is devoted wholly to the treatment of returned soldiers whose cases aro not so bad as to make confinement in au asylum for the insano necessary. The members of the delegation were: Messrs. J. I'. Harper (president of tho Wellington Branch of tne Returned Soldiers' Association), A T .. Broad, and J. Fox. 't'ney were shown round the institutions by -Major M'Killop, a returned medical officer,, who is second in charge at Seacliff. Air. Fox gave some account of the visit to a Dominion reporter on Saturday.

"We found," he said, "that the Karitane Homo was a specially built place, situated a considerable distance from the Mental Hospital. The men who are quartered there are not reminded in any way that they are under restraint. There arc no warders and 110 locked doors. The homo is managed and conducted by a staff of.nurses. I believe that occasionally the men go abroad with_ a male attendant, but the presence of a, man ou these outings is advisable for the welfare of the men. themselves. Inside the home our men are made yerj comfortable indeed. The ground lloor is occupied with the diningroom, kitchen, and so cn. On the first floor are the recreation rooms. There is a beautiful billiard ruom and a comfortable reading room. The inmates are not required to perform any duties at all. They take a certain, amount of exercise, and the rest of tho time they give to recreation. Every man lias a bedroom of his own, and the windows of the rooms look out over the sea ami a wide expanse of beautiful 'landscape. "We went also to the Mental Hospital,where some of our fellows are. But tho men who are there are not well enough to know where they are, and they are not sensitive about the indignity of restraint. I must confess that I had to recast some of my idea-s about the inside of a mental hospital. I had expected to find an interior little different from that of a gaol. Instead, 1 found a line, spacious, lofty, well-lighted, airy building situated in extensive grounds. As to cleanliness and general orderliness, the place was better kept than any hotel.

"The men iu the Karitane Home know that they are not. well, know that their menial condition is not normal, and bopo for their own recovery. Everything'is done to help them to recover, and Major M'Killop told us that soldiers aro continually being discharged cured from tho home. This home was by overcrowded, so that I can see no present reason for the establishment of other homes in Wellington or elsewhere. In any case, it seems to me that any new homes that aro established must be adjacent to mental hospitals, where the patients will have the benefit of the close supervision of medical officers who are experts in the ailments from which they are suffering." . As an instance of a case that is being treated in tho Karitane Home, Mr. Fox told of an unhappy soldier who is still, undor the delusion that he is fighting Turks 011 Sari liair. The idea cbsessea him daily, but all the while he is able to enjoy occasional games of cards or billiards, and to conduct, rational conversation. This man is iu the Karitanu Home. By and by lie will rid himself of this illusion, and he will go free, a perfectly sane man.