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Salient. Victoria University of Wellington Student's Newspaper. Volume 31, Number 5. April 2 1968
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Photos Fix It
These two photographs, which appeared in the Public Service Journal in May, 1966, were partly responsible for the closing down of the ward at Porirua which they depict. Similar conditions still exist in other places, however, and beds are as close together at Levin Hospital. It seems that only publicity, which is difficult because of fear of invoking the Official Secrets Act, can correct the situation.
The mental health system has been criticised for its objectives and the institutions through which it seeks to achieve them.
Levin Hospital and Training School has a number of alarming features. I believe that the defects of this hospital are not lack of finances but its institutional nature and lack of expert advice and adequate research.
We need mental hospitals. Perhaps a child cannot be kept at home because of the stress this causes within the family. Often it is economically impossible for the parents to obtain, or undertake the training of a mentally defective child. In smaller centres, full facilities cannot be provided.
However the system is misdirected. I attribute this, initially, to poor counselling of parents and a mistaken attitude to these children.
Often the institution cannot provide the elemental training and social adjustment that a normal home does. The individual care a child receives at home is incomparably superior. At Levin, short-stay patients, from good homes are usually recognised by their greater personal security, easier attitude toward adults, and greater alertness.
To place a young child in an institution is to deprive him or her of the extra stimulation a mentally defective child needs. Inevitably the child suffers.