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68
Mental Illness
Public attitudes towards mental illness and disorder are changing.
No longer is it considered right or desirable that unfortunate
sufferers should be incarcerated in asylums to be subjected to what
is virtual torture. A more humane approach has led to the abolition
of judicial certification by the Mental Health Act, 1959 and mental
illness is now afforded the same status as other illnesses.
Of what magnitude, in the community, is the problem of mental
illness and what of prevention ?
Effective preventive action is based upon profound knowledge
and understanding backed by accurate information. Regrettably, in
the case of mental illness, much of the data in use at present is
empirical although, with recently awakened public interest and the
establishment of several research study groups, this is being remedied.
Ascertainment of reliable statistics is difficult but, nationally,
of those persons known officially, some 100,000 (equivalent to about
0.2% of the population) are mentally subnormal and severely subnormal.
Of these, 65,000 are in psychiatric hospitals for mentally
subnormal persons, some 1,000 are at home and, of the 34,000 in
training centres, one half are under the age of 16 years. Of those in
hospital, only 7,000 are under 15 years and these are probably
severely subnormal. It is conceded, however, that the number of
officially known mentally subnormal and severely subnormal may
well be only two-thirds of the true total. Furthermore, it has been
suggested that the total of other mentally ill persons is likely to
equal or even exceed those who are subnormal or severely subnormal.
In the local authority's care at Greenwich, there are almost 500
persons in the subnormal and severely subnormal category and
approximately 600 people who are otherwise 'mentally ill'.
It is known that genetics figure largely in mental illness but,
with knowledge in this field at present being very limited, prevention
in these instances can lie only in the application of eugenics with the
local authority playing a supportive role. Such a role would include
efforts enabling all individuals to realise their full potential capacity
with a view to ultimate social adaptation and integration within the
family and community.
Elimination of brain damage in the newborn—perinatal as
well as congenital—would be a great step towards prevention of
mental illness and, in time, the 'at risk' registers should provide
some of the answers. This would, of course, depend upon fully
recording neonatal illness and the maintaining of thorough clinical
examinations of selected children at regular intervals up to about
the age of three months.
Lack of self-discipline, exemplified by recourse to drugs to
obtain solace and refuge rather than face difficulties or stand on