UNDER RESTRAINT

Hokitika Guardian, 31 December 1931, Page 6

UNDER RESTRAINT

CAKE OF MENTAL' PATIENTS. DANGEROUS TYPE. DIRFCTGR-GENERAL’S' VT E'WS. Dangerous patients in mental hospitals constitute a special problem, especially in view of tbe overcrowding in various institutions at the present time. 'For this reason, it is strongly urged by the Director-General of Mental Hospitals, Dr T. G. Gray, in his annual report, that a separate institution should be erected for these patients to serve the whole Dominion.

“With the gradual extension of parole and the ‘open door’ system in our mental hospitals, it is becoming’ increasingly desirable that a separate in-

stitution to serve the needs of the whole Dominion should be erected for the safe custody of dangerous patients.” says Dr Gray. “By 'dangerous pat-

ient,” I do net necessarily refer to the so-called ‘criminal lunatic,’ and I do not suggest the establishment of ail institution like Broadmoor, in England, to which those acquitted of serious crime on account of insanity would be automatically committed. “The great majority of those coninut- ■ ted .to our care under the part of the Act dealing with criminals are not violent or dangerous patients if provided with proper occupation, environment, and treatment, and, instead of causing any trouble or anxiety in ouy institutions, they are no,t infrequently among the most amenable and industrious of our patients. On the other hand, in every institution there is a small proportion of patients whose hallucinations, persecutory ideas, sexual, fireraising, or other abnormal proclivities render them a source of great danger to the fellow-inmates, and to the staff while in the institution, and to the community if they happen to escape.

“The results of their detention in an ordinary mental hospital are doubly unfortunate. In the first place, they render necessary structural precautions and restrictions which would otherwise be dispensed with to the benefit and increased liberty of the other patients, and, secondly, they have y themselves to be guarded and restrained with a strictness which could be mitigated in an institution specially designed for the needs of this small group. The number for whom this purely custodial care requires to be provided is not large—certainly not more than 100—fttit their segregation in this way would be of manifest advantage to the ordinary run of patients in our mental hospitals.’’