DOWN MEMORY LANE

Treating mental illness

My beloved grandfather was a WWI veteran –so gentle, rarely speaking and seldom smiling – who preferred to stay home with me while everyone else socialised at the local pub. I alone heard his traumatic war experiences. I now realise he suffered from PTSD – a condition then unknown.

When a local 12yo committed suicide in the 1950s no discussion was allowed, his name only mentioned in whispers.

Fortunately mental illness is no longer a taboo subject. In 2022 the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare estimated one in five adult Australians and one in seven youngsters aged 4-17 years experienced some mental disorder so it's no surprise it is a major issue for society.

The National Alliance on Mental Illness in America estimated in 2022 that 46.6M people including 17% of children aged 6-17 years were facing mental challenges. “People see a connection between mental health and overall wellbeing, our ability to function at work and at home and how we view the world around us,” said Dr. Christine Moutier of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.

This attitude change comes as mental health treatments now focus on community-oriented, holistic care. Past treatment was basically brutal, cruel, dangerous and often deadly. Skulls dating back 7,000 years show evidence of trephination to remove a small part of the skull using an auger, bore or saw, probably to relieve headaches or “demonic possession” as mental illness was often called.

Ancient Greeks and Romans believed illness was an imbalance of “humours” in the body. This theory, revised during the Medieval Renaissance, treated mental and physical illness by bloodletting, purging and vomiting. Using leeches or cutting veins continued into Victorian sunshinecoast.qld.gov.au

Regulated dog inspection program

Sunshine Coast Council will be undertaking a regulated dog inspection program between 14 November 2023 and 13 November 2024. The purpose of this program is to conduct a compliance audit at premises within the region where dogs that have been regulated under the Animal Management (Cats and Dogs) Act 2008 are being kept. The Act requires local governments to manage regulated dogs within their boundaries. The program will work to ensure animal owners are adhering to the mandatory conditions for keeping a regulated dog to reduce the risk posed by these animals. A copy of the program is available on council’s website.

For more information contact council on 07 5475 7272 or mail@sunshinecoast.qld.gov.au times for everything from a headache to cancer, asthma, strokes, smallpox and even misbehaving teenagers. large fluctuations in insulin levels changed how the brain functioned. Patients lost consciousness for up to four hours when their blood sugar fell. Mortality rates varied between 1% and 10%.

Those suffering mental illness were generally isolated from public view and mental asylums sprang up by the 17th Century supposedly to provide treatment, care and dignity. Instead they were overcrowded and staffed by untrained and often cruel wardens who delighted in mocking patients and stealing their personal items and food while making money by allowing visitors to gawp and mock suffering inmates.

Electroconvulsive therapy was introduced as a safer alternative even for misbehaviour and is still used in some cases of severe depression, mania or catatonia despite many patients suffering memory loss and increased mental anxiety afterwards.

The word 'bedlam', meaning chaotic uproar, comes from the St Mary Bethlehem Hospital founded in 1247. Despite the hospital now being a modern psychiatric facility in Bromley, London the nickname stuck because it once epitomised the worst excesses in treating 'lunacy'. Despite intervention from celebrated writers like Elizabeth Fry in the early 1800s treatments such as ice-cold baths and restraints remained.

Introduced in 1927 Insulin Coma Therapy continued until the 1960s. Doctors believed

Awarded the 1949 Nobel Prize in physiology and medicine the controversial procedure of lobotomy has been discontinued except for extreme cases due to the serious risks involved with removing the connections between the prefrontal cortex and frontal lobes of the brain. Today improved and extensive research into psychiatry, physiology, pathology, nutrition and other sciences, the introduction of medications, numerous therapies and counselling offer effective, safe treatments and access to understanding care. Despite some remaining stigma most of us want answers for prevention, care and cures.

Eileen Walder