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Cerebral palsy cases at Vale Road School for Physically Handicapped
Children have been receiving two to three treatments weekly.
Orthoptic Treatment
During the year arrangements were made for children suffering from
squint to attend for treatment at the clinic at Prince of Wales's
General Hospital, all cases being recommended by the ophthalmologist
at the Lordship Lane Clinic. This local service is proving more convenient
for parents than having to make the journey to a central
London hospital.
In Hornsey, four sessions a week have been held at the orthoptic
clinic at Hornsey Town Hall, and such additional sessions as are
needed from time to time.
Child Guidance Centres
I am indebted to Dr. Cyril Phillips, Visiting Psychiatrist, for the
following report on the year's work :—
" The work at the Hornsey Child Guidance Centre has continued
on well-established lines, but two important changes have occurred.
A full Child Guidance Service for children of school age started for
the first time in Tottenham at the beginning of December, 1953, and
this enables the integrated handling of emotional and educational
problems to be dealt with within our area instead of by an outside
Clinic with its disadvantages of long travelling time and a somewhat
unavoidable remoteness. During the three months the centre
in Tottenham has been functioning, it has been pre-occupied with
acute cases, mostly of behaviour problems, where exclusion from
school was necessary or urgent placement required.
" The treatment waiting list at Hornsey, where the lay therapist
works six sessions weekly, is now well over a year and in Tottenham,
where only four similar sessions are worked, it is reasonable to
assume that the waiting period will be even longer. There has also
been an enquiry from the Juvenile Court in Tottenham about seeing
some of their cases for psychiatric diagnosis and possibly treatment,
so that at the time of review it seems that the moderately ill and
disturbed children, or the minor cases, for which so much can be
done with relatively little effort, might well be crowded out.
" The second of the two changes concerns the children aged two
to five years, that is, pre-school age group. While awaiting for the
Tottenham Centre to begin functioning, the Psychiatrist's two
available sessions were spent semi-officially in seeing children of
these ages together with the mothers for advice and treatment. In
this project, which was somewhat experimental, and which lasted a
year and had the interested co-operation of Health Visitors and
School Medical Officers, a great deal was accomplished. It was
found that these very young children and their mothers responded
extremely well and in a much shorter time than either children of
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