HC Deb 07 November 1916 vol 87 cc54-5
113. Colonel YATE

asked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Local Government Board whether, in view of the number of men who have been discharged from the Army owing to the effects of un-certifiable nerve strain, any steps have been taken by local committees, acting under the instructions of the Central Statutory Committee, to provide convalescent homes, free from detention or suspicion of connection with lunacy, to which ex-soldiers of this class may go temporarily, with a view to the promotion of recovery and to linking them up again with their ordinary employment?

Mr. HAYES FISHER

The Statutory Committee have advised local committees that various kinds of treatment are required for nerve-shaken men. The Statutory Committee have been making careful inquiries into this difficult question, and they have under consideration at the present time a scheme under which appropriate cases would be treated and trained in an institution or institutions in which cases of ordinary wounds and illness other than mental would also be received.

Colonel YATE

Will that consideration be brought to a speedy termination or is it to go on indefinitely?

Mr. HAYES FISHER

We are very anxious to bring it to a speedy termination, but there is a good deal of conflict of opinion as to the best treatment of these cases. The matter is now being considered.

Mr. STEWART

Is the right hon. Gentleman aware that there are many soldiers discharged suffering from nerve shock who are in the county asylums at the expense of the ratepayers at the present time?

Mr. HAYES FISHER

I am aware of a few cases—not very many.