MENTAL CASES

Hokitika Guardian, 6 September 1929, Page 7

MENTAL CASES

TREATMENT IN NEW ZEALAND

A REPLY TO CRITICISM.

WELL.NGTON, Sept. 4

“My attention lias been called to the Press report of an address upon the care of mental defectives in New Zealand delivered in Sydney by Dr Buckley-Turkington, ,of Auckland,” states me Hon A. J. Stallworthy, Minister of Health. “The statements attributed to Dr Turkington are as much at variance with facts whjcli must be within her own knowledge that it is difficult to credit the report as being accurate. “The term ‘mentally defective person’ as used in. the New Zealand Act does not indicate merely those who are defective ‘from birth or an early age’ as in the legislation of other countries, but it includes also those of unsound mind and those mentally infirm. “As, however, provision is made in our seven mental hospitals for over 6XO statutory ‘mentally defective persons’ it must be assumed that Dr Ijiuckley-Turlvington’s complaint of uovernment inactivity is in fact restricted to those cases in which the defectiveness has existed from ‘birth or an early age.’ “Dr Buckley-Turkington is alleged to have said:—(l) That there is Government provision for only eighty mental defectives in the whole of New Zealand; and (2) that there is no machinery by which private homes for the care of mental cases can be registered.

“Both these statements are entirely wrong as the following facts will show:

SPECIAL SCHOOL,

“(1) The higher grades of mentally subnormal or defective children, i.e., thoes who are capable of benefiting from a modified or specialised type of education, are looked after hv the Department of Education Apart from about twenty special classes attached to the pimary schools, the Department has a residential special school at Otekaike where about 250 boys are being taught and cared for with excellent results. For girls there is a similar school at Richmond, where eighty pupils are in residence. The lower grade children are dealt with by the Mental Hospitals Department. In New Zealand, as in most other countries, these lower grade people, the idiots and imbeciles, are for the most part detained in the mental hospitals, but it has been recognised that it would be to the advantage of the mental hospitals that separate accommodation should be provided for such cases. This was given; effect to some years ago by the setting apart of a separate building for defective boys at Nelson, and no doubt Dr BuckleyTurkington refers to this when ■ she says that provision has been made for only eighty mental defectives. Apparently the doctor failed to mention the fact—which is well known to her—that another institution upon the villa system has recently been opened near Christchurch for those children who are found unable to benefit from further academic education but who are capable of training in other directions. x There is already accommodation for fifty boys, and another villa for fifty girls will be available before December next.

“(2) The statement that there is no machinery by which private homes for mental cases are registered is contrary to fact: Section 45 of the Afental Defectives Act 1911, expressly provides for private institutions for mental cases, and there is one such institution—Asliburn Hall, near Dunedin. Dr Buckley-Turkington is already well aware that there is provision in the Education Act, for the registration of schools for defective children. This was fully explained to her in connection with a recent incident.”

“EASILY REFUTED.” “A am glad to be .assured,” added Mr Stallworthy, “that the views held by Dr Buckley-Turkington do not express the policy of the board created under the Act. The opinion she is reported to have uttered: that ‘for the good of the community the higher grade defectives, those who just fall short of normality, must be cut away from normal people, especially in the schools,’ is not only contrary to the modern scientific point of view but it is opposed to commonsense land the dictates of humanity. “In his report upon mental deficiency and elsewhere Dr Gray has protested against the tendency to treat this problem on wholesale lines such as is suggested by Dr Turkington in the Press report, and has stressed the need for consideration of each individual case. “The statement that the Government has done notiiing can be easily refuted, but neither the Government nor the board has any intention of striving after spectacular effects at the expense o’f an honest effort to lay down a sound scheme. “The Act came into force | in January of this year, and in the ensuing eight months much has been accomp.ished, among which'T may cite the opening of a coLny for defective children near Christchurch and the inauguration of a central clinic in Wellington.

“Apart from these tangible evidences I am led to believe that the meetings of the board have been productive of useful discussions leading up to better co-ordination between the Departments concerned in looking after mentally defective persons.”