17 SEPTEMBER 1965, Page 21

ONE in every five families contains someone who is mentally

ill--so we are reminded in the current campaign. I find myself wondering how it is pos- sible to arrive at this statistic. Are these actual illnesses which have been reported on a national scale? Or is it a propor- tion, extrapolated to cover the country, based on those discovered in a smaller sample? Or does it mean that many more people are sick in the head than are ever examined by doctors? And how does it tie in with the other much-bandied figure of 44 per cent of beds in hospitals occupied by the mentally ill? Does that mean a fraction of the total number of beds existing in the country at any given time, or of the bed-hours filled over a year? And what is meant by mental illness anyway?