CONDITIONS IN MENTAL HOSPITALS [To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.]
Sm,—I have followed closely the correspondence in The Spictator regarding the conditions in mental hospitals. While being in complete agreement with those who deplore the overcrowding and attendant evils in our hospitals, I feel that it is imperative that someone should attempt to honour those doctors and nurses who so willingly devote their lives to the care of the insane.
When one has had the responsibility of caring for even a slight mental case one realises how much we owe to this noble race of men and women. I wonder how many of us with a relative in a mental hospital have wished to " put them away " as " Expertus " suggests. Surely the intelligent man or woman realises, that mental trouble is just as much a disease as cancer. For the latter illness we should immediately seek the advice of a specialist. Obviously the same course must be followed in a mental illness and not trust to our " natural affinity " to provide the necessary care.
Some without doubt of the private mental hospitals are run by unscrupulous persons for private gain, but to condemn them entirely shows ignorance on the part of any writer. At the present time I have a very near relative in one of these much-abused places, which is incidentally run by a committee having no pecuniary interest in the hospital, the sole purpose of which is to restore these suffering people to health, and to care for those who are unable to carry on in the world.
Each time I visit this hospital I come away filled with thank- fulness that such a place exists, for I am not sufficiently conceited to imagine that my love alone could effect a cure and I am well content to put my trust in those specially trained for this difficult task.—Yours sincerely, A RELATIVE.
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