Letters to the Editor Dear
Sir, HALF-WAY HOUSES
As a mental health worker who has been watching the working out of the Mental Deficiency Acts for some years now, I would allow myself some honest criticism in the hope that it may be constructive. I often wonder, allowing for the still serious lack of institutional accommodation in most areas, whether it is really necessary to make such provision for some of the high grade patients who are at present dealt with in this way. I find that many of these people?mostly girls between the ages of 15 and 20?are certified and institutionalised because their home background is bad, or even merely because their parents are too weak to be able to control them. Is it really fair to condemn these youngsters to a life of strict discipline and closed doors, simply because their natural urges are stronger than their ability to control them? It is untrue to say that most of them only stay in institutions for short periods; many stay there many years because they have nowhere else to go.
the solution to this problem? I advocate "half-way by efficient women for young people who, although to work daily in local factories, hospitals, laundries and restaurants and to enjoy dances and other entertainments, need a measure of control and discipline such as the requirement for keeping regular hours, etc. Many border-line cases with I.Q.'s below normal, would also benefif from an environment of the kind without losing touch with everyday life. By treating these youngsters as the children they mentally are, improvement would be certain and many untrained and undisciplined young people who would otherwise be a continuing cost to the State, would be turned into useful citizens to be eventually discharged from the provisions of the Mental Deficiency Acts altogether. Could not we try the experiment? L. M. KOLL (Mrs.) Hutton Rudby, Yarm, Yorks What
then is
Houses"?homes able to go out
run
Our correspondent is no doubt aware that Hostels connected with Institutions have long ago proved their value, and that the Agricultural Hostels run by the Central Association for Mental Welfare were an outstanding success. That Hostels should also be available for high-grade defectives who have not been in Institutions, particularly for educationally subnormal school-leavers in need of a home, is becoming increasingly recognised, and the attention of the Ministry of Health has been drawn to it on several occasions. Ed.
Sir, HALF-WAY HOUSES
As a mental health worker who has been watching the working out of the Mental Deficiency Acts for some years now, I would allow myself some honest criticism in the hope that it may be constructive. I often wonder, allowing for the still serious lack of institutional accommodation in most areas, whether it is really necessary to make such provision for some of the high grade patients who are at present dealt with in this way. I find that many of these people?mostly girls between the ages of 15 and 20?are certified and institutionalised because their home background is bad, or even merely because their parents are too weak to be able to control them. Is it really fair to condemn these youngsters to a life of strict discipline and closed doors, simply because their natural urges are stronger than their ability to control them? It is untrue to say that most of them only stay in institutions for short periods; many stay there many years because they have nowhere else to go.
the solution to this problem? I advocate "half-way by efficient women for young people who, although to work daily in local factories, hospitals, laundries and restaurants and to enjoy dances and other entertainments, need a measure of control and discipline such as the requirement for keeping regular hours, etc. Many border-line cases with I.Q.'s below normal, would also benefif from an environment of the kind without losing touch with everyday life. By treating these youngsters as the children they mentally are, improvement would be certain and many untrained and undisciplined young people who would otherwise be a continuing cost to the State, would be turned into useful citizens to be eventually discharged from the provisions of the Mental Deficiency Acts altogether. Could not we try the experiment? L. M. KOLL (Mrs.) Hutton Rudby, Yarm, Yorks What
then is
Houses"?homes able to go out
run
Our correspondent is no doubt aware that Hostels connected with Institutions have long ago proved their value, and that the Agricultural Hostels run by the Central Association for Mental Welfare were an outstanding success. That Hostels should also be available for high-grade defectives who have not been in Institutions, particularly for educationally subnormal school-leavers in need of a home, is becoming increasingly recognised, and the attention of the Ministry of Health has been drawn to it on several occasions. Ed.
