The people's voice. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1939-1969, 1950-12-08
By GRETCHEN G. BILLINGS


Governors Interim Committee went
into high gear this past week to get
as much information to the press of
the state about the needs of our men
tai institutions as is possible.
The needs of these institutions are
great, and it is the aim of the COM
mittee to present to the editors of the
weekly and daily papers all available
material in the hope they will present
it to their readers.
There is much involved in dissent
mating information about the mental
deficient and his care.
There is the physical problem of
adequate facilities
There is the human problem of
heart-break and tears.
There is the gaining of public I'M
derstanding of the alarming number
Of mentally deficient children that
are born and the high ratio of our
adult population who will, at one
time or another, spend some time in
mental institution.
The vast and difficult task of pro-
viding for these people has shown
promising advancement in very re-
cent years. The heavy cross of car
ing for loved one suffering from
mental deficiency has been allevi-
ated to the extent that enlightened
people no longer regard as stigma,
mental deficiency. Only through
continuous work and education can
the barriers of suspicion and ignor-
ance, with which the mental deficient
is sometimes held, be broken down.
Basic facts on mental deficiency
include:
One out of fifty are mentally de- |
ficient, ranging from high grade
and borderline deficient to the Sc
verely retarded.
One out of eighteen people are de-
stined to spend some time in their
lives in mental institution.
Mental deficiency is no respector
of people. 1t is found in every
race, in every environment, in the
country as well as the city. It's
blight falls upon the family of
bankers and laborers, of professors
and illiterates. The mentally def
cient may stem from superior as
well as poor stock. 1t could hap
pen in your family.
The problems of the mentally def
cient adult or child are inseparable
as a community responsibility. But,
for this time let us consider the child,
in the State Training School at
Boulder.
One of the greatest sorrows in
mothers life is to watch her child
with lurking suspicion and fear that
to terror when she is told
that he must be put in an institution
because of a mental deficiency.
Tears, denominations, heart-ache and
3 strain one ones faith precede logi-
cal facts. Cold, hard facts outlined
by the family doctor. Facts
that include: the inability to care for
nim when he grows; the effect of a
mentally deficient child in the family
IN other children; the physical, emo
,ional and financial drain on the fam
ly, which many times leads to it's
iisintegration; and the overwhelming
act that the child himself would
lave to compete in world beyond
lis physical and mental capacities.
The acceptance of these things to-
lay finds our institutions over the
lation, as well as in Montana, far be-
lind the need they must fill
Our own training school reflects
his condition with presently $50 q
hildren crowded into space meant
or 371. Because many of the men c
ally handicapped are also physically tc
the overcrowding con- pr
ition presents serious problems of la
morale, and injury among az
he patients. And these figures are in
ut the existing situation at Boulder. fir
II. Westwell reports also that unable Il
D accept any more additions to his