Levin Home Called A Zoo

Sirs,—While appreciating praise of a place which is very dose to my heart, I do not feel that Mr. Saunders's article in issue nine of Salient gives a very accurate or even helpful picture of Levin Hospital and Training School.

I have worked at Levin during two summer vacations as a member of the Training Staff, and have. in fact, visited and been associated with the institution for tour years now.

However, I do not want to discredit Mr. Saunders's article but rather, firstly, to point out some of his comments which I feel are too general and misleading and, secondly, to bring out those aspects which be has not mentioned and which I feel are basic to a real understanding of the aim and function of the Hospital and Training School.

First of all, his repeated emphasis on the clean facilities and clothes, the supply of wholesome food, the well-laid-out grounds and the high standard of physical care is misleading and unfortunately tends to give the impression more of a well-run zoo than a home for children.

It is not true that "the patients do not have sufficient intelligence to appreciate fancy meals." After all, we give our two and three-year-olds "fancy meals" as an expression of love and from a concern that they should have the best and do not stop because it is thrown on the floor and generally "not appreciated."

Closely related to this point is his assertion that "few patients have sufficient intelligence to appreciate a so-called 'separate identity.'" This is a vicious circle for if people are dressed in old-fashioned "non-distinctive" clothes how can they care. I'm sure that anyone seeing many of the older children getting ready for socials or outings, or even the care some of them took every day over their clothes, could not have made such a sweeping comment.

We dress our babies and toddlers in beautiful, carefully chosen or made individual clothes, although they dribble and roll in the mud. This is surely a way of creating a sense of identity.

The statement that "all patients are extremely happy" is, I feel, a particularly unrealistic one. I do not believe that this can ever be said of any institution or group of people.

Associated with this is the idea that "the children receive a high degree of love and affection from the staff." It is true that some of the staff become fond of certain children but many are badly neglected in this respect and if some of the treatment of children by staff which I have seen is the way to treat "normal human beings" then I fear for the future of our world.

A large institution such as this can never really replace the love and close relationships of a home and although realising that some of the children are perhaps happier here than they were in their own homes, we should never regard an institution as a more desirable alternative.

Finally, the comment that any fighting is "usually be-tween the relatively more intelligent patients" has in-teresting implications for us as university students.

In this second section I want to make those points about Levin Hospital and Training School which Mr. Saunders overlooked. As he says, these "patients" are "human beings' (although I would query his term "normal") but I do not feel that he has really written about them as such.

After all, we should not be surprised that they are well cared for physically—we do as much for our animals—this is a right, not a privilege, which every human being has. It is more important to ask what is being done for them as people and this involves far more than preventing bedsores and cleaning their teeth after the main meal.

No mention at all was made in the article of the extensive Training Programme in which all children who may be able to benefit participate (there are very few bed-patients as described by Mr. Saunders).

To give Just a brief idea of the range of this programme, I have listed the facilities without commenting on the facilities involved. There is a kindergarten, playroom, training block, pre-school, school (run by the Education Department), an industries block (box-factory and other work), laundry, woodwork shops, gym, occupational therapy as well as gardening and domestic duties for some of the older patients as mentioned in the article.

There are also many other extra activities—such as swimming and sports, weekly "club nights" for different groups, visits to or from other hospitals, to Wellington or the beach, weekly film screenings and summer camps. A genuine attempt is made to develop each child to his full potential and where possible to help the child return to society as a responsible member.

Much more is being done and is yet to be done in this rapidly developing field but space does not permit further comment and there is really no substitute for a personal visit.

I hope that this letter has in some way corrected the inaccurate impression which I feel Mr. Saunders gave of Levin Hospital and Training School, for while sharing his feelings of enjoyment and optimism, I am convinced that we must be realistic about such a place to be at all constructive there.

If I have managed to replace the picture of a rather "rosy hospital where all the patients and staff live happily ever after" with the idea of a hospital and training school Where there is still room for a great deal of improvement, especially in staff-patient relationships, but where much is being done for the children in helping them de-velop as people, becoming more fully involved in a personal way in the life of the institution and perhaps for some to ultimately take their, place in society, then I will be satisfied.