COMMITTAL TO ASYLUM.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXX, Issue 5374, 14 January 1929, Page 3

COMMITTAL TO ASYLUM.

• I INSUFFICIENT SAFEGUARDS. CRITICISM OF RECENT CASES. Are people committed too easily to asylums ? In Wellington critics are protesting, that the present pioc.ejiure does not provide sufficient safeguards (writes “Seeker,” in the Waikato Times). Miss M. England, a University woman and prominent lecturer, wrote to .the “Post” telling of the committal to Porirua Mental Hospital of Miss —, a domestic worker, aged 50. The letter, admitted that Miss; — suffered from delusions, but these we;re “quite harmless.” . “She was no one’s enemy but her own and was exceptionally kind.”. Miss England’s qhief complaint was that no inquiry was made) of. people who knew Miss — well. “She was taken to the Court, being fetched by a woman (a police matron) in plain clothes, who told her s,he had come to take her. to arrange about work in the country. Whejn she got to the Court and realised; her position she was utterly alone among strangers,. She naturally became hysterical, and was then seen by the magistrate, whb, with the doctor’s note; before him, dild his formal duty and ordered the committal.” Miss England urged that any person in suc,h a position should have the advice and help of a lawyer.; aL|o “that of the two doctors sigping the certificate, one should be) appointed year by year by the Minister of Justice, and be a specialist in mental disease (a woman M.D. of similar qualifications to be also appointed to examine all women) ; the names of these doc-; tors, to be published andl known to everyone.” She also asked that at least a month s|hould be allowed to elapse before committal, except in case of sudden homicidal mania. Miss. England, writing to ask “Seeker” to take up the matter, says : “My fpend’s delusions were; So mild and harmless that by the time she had been under observation 10 days at Po.rirua everyone from the DirectorGeneral downward admitted, she should not be there.” That being s,o, we may surely hope that the lady will be discharged, but there sterns, to be a question whether, iher maintejnance can be assured. The protest against present methods of committal was supported by Professor Gould (Education) and Professor Hunter (Philosophy). SENDING KIFE TO ASYLUM; Thfp another, case came to public notice in Wellington. A barman named Broughton had Ibis wife sent to aslyum in exceptionally, cruql circumstances, as was s,hown later in court, when sjhfj shed her husband successfully for, separation and maintenance. Broughton took out a warrant and had his wife, arrested (as . a lunatic.) when she was visiting her child in hospital, who was not expect- 1 ed to. ive. The .necessary doctors’ certificates andi order were obtained, but when Mrs Broughton arrived at Porirua, the mental doctor considerpdl he;r obviously .sane and refused to, admit her; however, it took time for the law to release her. As the magistrate said, in. giving judgment for separation : “The unfortunate woman was deprived) of her liberty for one arid a-half to two days and in the meantime her child died, and she did no t s,ee it.” The fact that the doctor at the Mental Hospital could bring about Mrs Broughton’s release shows that there is some protection against wrongful committal, but the case also indicates the danger that a cruel wrong may be done by a Person interested in getting, another, declared to be mad. Apparently the decision of. two doctors and a magistrate can be given rather lightly. WHAT CAN BE DONE ? 1 think everyone will admilt that we should have hospitals for obervation and early treatment of people apparently suffering from mental trouble. The doctors tell us we should not regard mental illness aq a disgrace, and fortunately people are coming to re-; cognise that a normal person may suffer a temporary breakdown through overstrain or some such cause. A few get proper treatment in such circumstances, but only a fe.w. We would hate to send anyone to, a “mental hospital” to be kept under lock and key and to face the possibility (often realised only too intengelv by the victim) of a lifelong imprisonment. Separate clinics would; not only offer, treatment (in place of neglect, which must often prove fatal), but would give the opportunity for observation of those afflicted before their committal to institutions, designed chiefly for chroniq sufferers. These separate in-; stitutilons would cost money, but it is difficult to see how safeguards can be provided otherwise.