MENTAL -HOSPITALS

Hokitika Guardian, 21 October 1933, Page 6

MENTAL -HOSPITALS

THE ANNUAL REPORT.

WELLINGTON, October 17

“The heavy burden imposed on the community by the steadily increasing number, ot patients maintained in mental hospitals and kindred institutions has become a matter of deep public concern, n6t only in Ngav Zealand hut in most other countries where the present financial stringency has necessitated a strict scrutiny of public expenditure,’’ states the Director-General ol Mental Hospitals, D,r. T. G. Gray, in his annual- report presented to Darlia- | nient to-day. Dr. Gray stated that in Great Britain a .scientific committee had been set up to go into the causes and possible relief of mental disorders. Contrary to popular belief, he continued, serious massed stresses did hot produce insanity. In fact, the evidence, was all in the other direction. During the Avar period the proportion of adult female patients admitted was consistently lower than in normal years, although these wives ancl parents of men on service Avere being subjected to prolonged and unusual mental stress, iff Napier, a few hours after the catastrophe, numerous cases were seen which were indistinguishable from the shell shock of the trenches, but there Avere 22 fewer cases of severe mental disorder admitted from the Hawke’s Bay area in the year following the earthquake than in the previous 12 months, and in no individual case could the disaster be ascribed as the cause. One would he tempted to expect that distress arising lrom the prevailing economic difficulties Mould be reflected in an increase in admissions. Actually the total admissions, including voluntary boarders, were 10 less than jn the previous .year.