The Survey, Volume 30, Number 1, April 5, 1913Various
History
The Survey, Volume 30, Number 1, April 5, 1913
Various
Charities -- Periodicals; Social problems -- Periodicals; United States -- Social conditions -- Periodicals
Mrs. R. now reports weekly to the clinic, but her depression has
disappeared. She is cheerful, interested in life, and is looking forward
to the re-establishment of her home this spring.
Recent conferences on mental hygiene have emphasized the fact that the
traditional conception of mental disease, raving insanity, is far behind
the times. We recognize today that there are in the community all
classes of mental disorders, from the maniac or imbecile to persons who
are "just a little queer," or who, like Mrs. R., have a definite and
curable obsession.
The time has also gone by when we associated the treatment of mental
disease with the straight-jacket. The hopelessly defective and insane
must indeed be segregated in institutions. But it is public economy to
diagnose and treat the great mass of incipient and curable cases of
mental disorder, since these, if uncared for, mean the wrecking of
lives, the breaking up of families, and material loss to the community.
The psychopathic clinic, or clinic for mental diseases, is an agency the
importance of which is now recognized by all who have given attention to
this field. Such clinics have usually been conducted in hospitals or
institutions which specialized in mental disorders. They have rarely
been managed as adjuncts of general hospitals or dispensaries. There is
a distinct place for them in this connection, however, for in this way
they catch patients who do not know that their troubles are really
symptoms of mental disease.
Mrs. R.'s case illustrates not only the service of such a mental clinic,
but also the two chief agents in achieving the service, the
physician--specialist in mental diseases--and his aide, the social
worker. Mrs. R.'s case belongs to one of three classes of mental disease
which such a clinic can benefit--the incipient type. The second class
comprises cases of mental defect which require diagnosis and
institutional care.
For example. Mrs. B., a middle-aged Irish woman, came to the clinic much
excited, fancying that people were locking her into her rooms. Among
other delusions she feared that she might injure her two children.
The doctor diagnosed her case as involutional insanity, and thought
that immediate arrangements were desirable for her entrance into an
insane hospital as a voluntary patient. Mrs. B. did not remember
her street number, and undoubtedly she would have been a "lost"
patient if the social worker had not taken her home. Arrangements
were made and carried out for a transfer to the insane hospital
that same afternoon, and a children's agency agreed to assume
supervision of the children during Mrs. B.'s absence. The help of a
friendly landlady was also enlisted.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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