Mending Minds
- Author:
Paul Winterton.
Peter Davies, 1938, 8/6.
This book is the result of an investigation undertaken on behalf of one of our great daily newspapers into the conditions obtaining in the Public Mental Hospitals of England and Wales and the subject of mental disease and its treatment in general. Whatever was the original intention of the investigation, the book actually constitutes perhaps the strongest lay defence of the Public Mental Hospital system which has appeared in print.
The author’s avowed intention was to investigate the life and work of the Public Mental Hospitals on behalf of the NewsChroniclc, and to present the truth about present conditions in these Hospitals while avoiding all trace of sensationalism. He apparently anticipated considerable difficulty in obtaining access to a Mental Hospital and it is instructive and somewhat amusing to watch his initial attitude of suspicion gradually changing to a warmly expressed admiration of the work which is carried out by the Medical and Nursing staffs in the majority of these institutions. Such a change in attitude is familiar to those of us who have had experience in Mental Hospital work but it is none the less gratifying to find it so definitely expressed in this book. Mr. Winterton deals very fully with the problems of overcrowding and the consequent difficulties of proper classification of the patients in the majority of our Mental Hospitals and he has much to say about the short-sighted policy adopted by many local authorities in this connection.
His indictment of the manner in which some Authorities are carrying out their responsibilities in the matter of Mental Health is a strong one. His facts are clearly stated and his case against local apathy is so carefully reasoned that one would like to see this book in the hands of every member of the various Mental Hospital Visiting Committees with a view to stimulating and guiding their interest in the hospitals for which they are responsible.
The law relating to mental disease is discussed and the bogey of wrongful detention is given the place which it deserves? that is the end of the book.
A number of criticisms of the clothing, feeding and occupation of patients and of the unsatisfactory sanitary accommodation at some Mental Hospitals is made by quoting extracts from the Board of Control’s Reports on these Hospitals. This is not altogether a fair method of criticism, however, for (as the author himself mentions) conditions which have been criticised by the visiting Commissioners may well have been rectified by the time the Commissioners report appears in print.
On the subject of the problems connected with obtaining nursing staff, particularly female staff, the author expresses a number of opinions and recommendations which are, in the main, those which are generally expressed by persons with a superficial knowledge of this subject and which do not agree with the conclusions held by the majority of Medical Superintendents and Matrons.
The author makes an excellent point when he alludes to the ignorance and dread of the general public on the subject of mental hospitals, and puts forward the suggestion that the Board of Control should employ a Publicity Officer to make known the real facts. There is much to be said for this suggestion, but in some districts the desired end is already being obtained by throwing open periodical^ the whole hospital for inspection by the public with gratifying results and, in the absence of helpful official publicity designed to overcome the prejudice against mental hospitals, this plan might well be more generally adopted. R. W. Armstrong.
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