CONDITIONS IN MENTAL HOSPITALS
[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.] SIR,—" Relative " is mixing up profit-making licensed houses with Registered Hospitals. The latter, also for private patients, are governed by independent committees and run on a non-profit-making basis. They are mostly excellent institutions for the chronic insane to which licensed houses might easily be converted.
" Relative " seems also unaware that the best intentions, if unsupported by knowledge, often produce unfortunate results. The layman considers insanity a horrid mystery and trusts implicitly to those who have charge of the patient even though he may have known the case for years and the doctors only a week. He may not consciously want to put a relative " away," but he is easily persuaded that the patient is receiving better care than at home, especially when the latter's complaints are considered proof of delusion and his letters need not be forwarded. Private homes usually discourage relatives' visits and, even when they come, they seldom get further than the visitors' room. A cancer patient has some say in his treatment.
Nurses themselves dislike their work being called " noble and self-sacrificing " to hide up its slave-driven conditions. Nursing is a job like any other. Mental nurses are better organised than those in voluntary hospitals, and have, in many places, won the 48-hour week. The work is exacting, but they are better paid than general nurses and the examination standard is much lower. Nevertheless, the difficulty of getting nurses of the right type, who treat patients with some understanding, is everywhere admitted by authorities them- selves. The female staff is constantly in flux and overweighted by young probationers who leave after a few months. The majority certainly do not " devote their lives " to it.
" Relative " must look for mental specialists outside institutions. Until recently, no qualification in psychology was demanded of doctors entering the mental hospital service. And even now, amongst those who come and go in private homes, a D.P.M. degree must be rare. Most have no further qualification than the general practitioner.—I am, Sir,
BLACKBURNIAN.
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