MACARTHY HOME

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 107, 30 January 1919, Page 6

MACARTHY HOME

WHAT TO DO? THE PSYCHOLOGY OF JUVENILE INVALIDS AN INTERESTING INTERVIEW. At the last meeting of the Wellington Hospital and Charitable Aid Board a discussion took place in- tho course of which it was stated that the Macarthy Homo for Convalescent Children at Belmont had proved to be a "white elephant," and was a burden to the contributing bodies, who had to make up the annual loss on the institution. In the course of an interview-'with the. chairman of the board (Mr. H. Baldwin) yesterday, it was deduce , ! tint tho home was being run at a Vrjbablo loss of •CSOO a year, and how G> turn the place into an institution that would more approximately pay its way was a problem yet to be solved.

"The difficulty as far as I can see," said Mr. Baldwin, "is that parents dssired to regain the custody of their children ns soon as possible on their recovery in the Children's Hospital, and did not like the : ''i'a of their being placed in the convi .Tii'K-it loine on account of the cost and, *". r j3ibly, because they could not sec their children so readily. Whilst admitting, that the natural feeling of parents was to got their children- home again as soon ns possible, it,did not always work out for the benefit of the patients. Indeed, the m«lical .Superintendent and nurses agreed that even the visits of parents to the hospital did not conduce to the speedy recovery of the child. This was how it was. A child might be ill—perhaps seriously ill—and the parents visited the Hospital, and naturally spoke.of home and tho family 'and the friends of the little patient. They often said, without thinking, 'Wouldn't yon like to be home agaiif with little Johnnie or Sueje? , as the ease might be. And what was the result? The patient became excited., sometimes there was a flood of tears, and maybe an appealing entreaty. That meant a relapse cr setting back in the health of the patient. Parents ' diJ not think of this. They only, thought that their visits wero cheering, and did not reflect on the results of such visits on the emotional child patient.

"It was for this precise reason," continued Mr. Baldwin, "that the board decided some three years ago to curtail the visiting hours of patients to the Children's Hospital from four hours to two per week—one hour on Wednesday and one on Saturday. So that from a medical point of view visits of parents were hardly to be encouraged, as they disturb the mind of the patient, and in some cases check the rate of improvement. That being the case, the location of the Macurthy Home for Convalescent Children mlist be regarded as excellent. It had the nnproval of His Excellency the Governor-General and file medical superintendent.' and they all thought the situ ideal. The home is three-quarters; of a mile from the- Melling Station, and milv five minutes' walk up a well-graded road from the Belmont Road. The pronerty consists of over 18 ncres of land, well laid out in gardens and lawns. Its elevation on the Belmont Hills ensures good drainage and the purest air. From the rill immediately nt the back of the home a. magnificent panorama meets tho eye. Below the Hutt Vfllley stretches out like a coloured plan of the district, and io the south may be seen thr- full extent of Wellington Harbour, wit 1 ! Cook Strait beyond; on clear days the Kaikouras [in the South . Island) are plainly visible. Everything conductive to good health is there—fresh air, fresh milk, amnio playgrounds ,and an exhilarating outlook—yet tho parents of sick children had not seen their way to allow their children to spend a or two there to complete their convalescence, but chose to take them home, often to some crowdpd locality in the city,'where the' conditions of life were not all that they should be. "The home was an experiment," said Mr. Baldwin. 'T think 1 am right in saying that it is the only children's convalescent home attached to a general hospital in New Zealand. The only other ones I have heard of in Australasia are those in Sydney and Melbourne. What can ane say? It has been tried. We have6Cen asked other doctors to place their juvenile convalescents in the home,- but the parents step in almost every time to prevent what is probably in the very b;-st interests of such children.'

"1 lie.only way out of our difficulty, as far as I can see, is to make the home one for the destitute children who conio under our care and are committed through the Court to the Education Department, which boards thorn out with other families, for which the hoard pays the sum ,of Bs. per week. We have always known that this system is by no means ideal. How can tbp treatment accorded to such children be uniformly satisfactory? There are some deserving people, no doubt, who look after the children well, but in the case of a poor family where there are already three or four children, how can the littlo strangers be well treated a rule?; It is almost natural to suppose thab there must be discrimination in treatment. On the other hand there have cropped up ftqm time to timu cases where such children have been absolutely neglected. That is not right. If instead of committing such children we were to place them in the Macarthy Home, amidst beautiful 'surroundings, the position would be a deal more satisfactory than it is at present."

In answer to a question about charges at the home, Mr. Baldwin said that they were the same us, at the Children's Hospital. If the parents were unable to pay, there was no charge at all, but m cases where it was known that tlit-y could the usual hospital charge «&3 made. ■

The Macarthy Hoi?ie was purchased, altered, and furnished with a grant of .£7OOO from the trustees of the late Mr. T. G..McCarthy's estate, but there is no endowment attached to the institution. The monetary returns received from patients so far has been negligible.