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SPASTIC CHILDREN
A treatment centre for spastic children was established in
1955 at 61, Cheyne Walk, under the authority of the No. 4 (Chelsea)
Group Hospital Management Committee. The Centre is continuing
to widen its activities and through the past year has received
patients from as far afield as Turkey, Portugal and Spain.
The pattern of examination and investigation has remained
much the same as in 1958 with audiometric and ophthalmological
examinations being carried out on every patient. The number of
cases examined has now reached three hundred and the current
number of children attending regularly is sixty-seven, of whom
thirty-two attend daily either in the two classrooms or an
assessment class.
The Medical Committee is now developing research work and for
the last eighteen months a sub-committee has met and evolved some
research schemes, many of which are now in hand.
This year a spacious schoolroom has been erected for the senior
children, and by arrangement with the education authorities concerned
the upper age limit of the children in class has been raised to
seven years.
The hostel has continued to prove a very considerable asset
to the work of the Centre. Six children can be accommodated weekly
from Monday to Friday, and in addition a mother and child can be
lodged there for a fortnight's treatment, training and advice.