CONDITIONS IN MENTAL HOSPITALS
[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR,]
Silt,-- It is only too true, as your correspondent describes, that the conditions of overcrowding and the general " mix-. up " of patients in mental hospitals actually does exist in the majority of mental hospitals and homes. I once visited a small mental hospital, one supported by private contri- butions and bazaars, a hospital much advertised I believe as being one that was unique,. and the only one of its kind for early mental cases. The patients were of all social classes, professional and working classes, They slept and lived during the day in their over-crowded bedrooms. Adults occupied bedrooMs with children who k'ept them awake by screaming and crying throughout the night. Some of the more docile children were often heard to complain that they should be made to do practically the entire work of their bedrooms. The nursing staff consisted chiefly of untrained assistant nurses. And the medical stuff were doctors who had come to learn about mental dixease inA cad of being fully qualified psyehiatrists.—Yours faithfully,
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