OCR Text |
Show KATHLEEN NORMS Tragedy of an Afflicted Mother public institution she will be much more intelligently handled, she will have access to modern and expensive ex-pensive methods and equipment not available In any private asylum, and and note this carefully, it , will be to no one's financial interest to keep her there. I It has been my experience, in the last two years, to make many visits ' to one of California's largest in- sane asylums. There are some fearful fear-ful cases there, shut away fromi human sight, of course. But there are also scores of borderline cases; j not a week goes by but what some sobered, healthy, cured woman returns re-turns to her home. There are sun-1 flooded v;ards containing ten or a dozen smooth beds each oh, . I've gone in at all hours unexpectedly and always found them so. There are long dining tables covered with white cloths, set decently with glass and china. (The food is poor in all institutions.) institu-tions.) The food in the army, in boarding schools, in boarding houses, is notoriously uninteresting. uninterest-ing. In the asylum I know, my patient complains loudly of meat loaf and fish chowder, meat loaf and fish chowder endlessly. The bread oh, that's good. Milk? Yes, she gets a quart a day. Jam? Oh, yes, they are putting up cherries and apricots now. Sometimes she has to wipe dishes, clear tables. Sometimes she shells peas, peels potatoes. Every bright day she is out in the open. tin a TKALtn; letter irom a north-Iowa town, Estelle Owens asks me for advice that is painful ' o give. Everything about mental illness is excruciatingly excruci-atingly painful for all concerned, con-cerned, and in Estelle's case the patient is her dearly loved mother. "I am 36, married to a fine man and with three daughters aged 14, 12 and 6," writes Estelle. "My brother, happily married, has four very small sons. We two are the sole support of our mother, who for more than four years has been an inmate of a private asylum. The charges for her care are $300 monthly, exclusive of such extra expenses as X-rays, clothing, dental plates and other details outside the regular routine. "She shares a room with two other cases; with another 3-bed ward they have their own bathroom. bath-room. But naturally she is not permitted per-mitted freedom to bathe, and all doors and windows are locked at all times. "My husband and my brother's wife are understanding and generous gen-erous in this situation, for we all love or did love, my mother," the letter goes on. "But we are faced now byi the impossibility of continuing con-tinuing this arrangement, and I write to ask you if you know of any less expensive, perhaps semi-private semi-private institution? We could pay a hundred a month. To whom should we apply for information on this point? Disposed of Savings "We have disposed of all our savings, cafhed war bonds, and I am turning over every penny I make in boarding and attending small children, but it is not enough. "We have determined among ourselves, our-selves, and promised her, that we never will consider a public insane asylum for Mama, whose heart would break if we so much as . . . food is poor in institutions . . . hinted at it. We cannot have her in our home as she has irrational intervals when she is dangerous. But we are given hope of a cure in her case, as the injury to the brain may absorb. Often it causes delusions, but at times she is just Mama again. Please help us to solve this agonizing problem." Estelle, my answer is that you and your brother are risking your own marital happiness by this unrealistic un-realistic attitude toward what is a terrible tragedy. But the sensible course for you, the most hopeful and promising one, the least expensive and the most responsible, is to place your mother in the state institution, and begin to work for her comfort, your own, your husband's and your children's welfare, from there. Dangerous Burden You and your brother are putting a dangerous burden upon the generosity gen-erosity of your mates, and it is important to stop that at once. Worry about money, discussion of the waste of it, payment of outrageous out-rageous charges and unexpected expenses creates a strain that no marriage can long endure. For every reason your mother should be moved at once to the state asylum. Terrible words, aren't they? But so are the facts. In the |