Mental hospitals and the public : the need for closer co-operation / by Lt.-Colonel J.R. Lord, C.B.E., M.D., F.R.C.P. Edin.

  • Lord, J. R. (John Robert), 1874-1931
Date:
1927
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Mental hospitals and the public : the need for closer co-operation / by Lt.-Colonel J.R. Lord, C.B.E., M.D., F.R.C.P. Edin. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Y. The attitude of the Press to mental disorders and mental institutions crit as retarding enlightenment and -progress. VI. Isolation of mental institutions deplored. Its causes and effects, mental hospitals need and why they can never he entirely “ open ” institutions. VII. One solution of the isolated position of mental hospitals to he found i appointment of independent, unofficial, and voluntary mental hospital visitors i intermediary between patients and their homes. VIII. Psychiatrical field work and workers. The dynamic approach to trea the only sound and successful one. The necessity for environmental investigate regard to mental disorders. I. In these pages I have tried to put in words some small things achieved perhaps it were better put, on the way to being achieved—which are design improve the lot of the mentally afflicted person, to soften the attitude of the “ j mind ” commonly called “the public” towards him, to find for him a place % the community during his necessary segregation as we do those sick in body, an one outside of it, or on the fringe of it, estranged from the world as though he a pariah or outlaw ; to improve and facilitate his treatment by bringing in the of the psychiatrist the great body of medical science to bear upon his infirmity at the earliest possible moment; and finally, on his recovery, to welcome him to full citizenship, and to find him suitable work so that he may live and thi which is the birthright of all men. These objects have been the ambitions of over a century down to the p] day, a task yet to be completed. Much has been done, but during recent progress has been slow. Changes in the law are required, and, above all, a c. in the attitude of the public to mental maladies, to those so afflicted and to the tutions which treat and shelter them, and also a building up of a psychiatry broader basis, not separate from, but in close co-operation with the general stre medical science. Every successful effort, however small, in these directions is important, in when co-ordinated with others, it helps towards the solution of a great and social problem which for long ages has faced mankind. Why then is public opinion so apathetic, prejudiced and unsympathetic in i to those whom the law labels as “ insane,” and why is it so stubborn, so resist; education in all matters connected with the care and treatment of mental disoi First of all, what do we understandby “the group mind”? Obvious