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CENTRE FOR SPASTIC CHILDREN
The following report on the work of the Centre for Spastic Children
has been kindly supplied by The Secretary of the Chelsea and Kensington
Hospital Management Committee.
The Centre for Spastic Children has continued its excellent work
throughout the year at 61, Cheyne Walk, under the control of the Chelsea
and Kensington Hospital Management Committee.
At the Centre, selected children between the ages of 2 to 7 years,
suffering from cerebral palsy are accepted for admission to one of the
nursery classrooms where they receive both educational training and
therapy. Under regular medical supervision they are given daily
physiotherapy, speech therapy, audio-therapy and occupational therapy
as necessary, The two nursery classrooms, which can accommodate 15
children in each, were full for most of the year.
In addition, the Assessment Unit which provides similar facilities
for more backward children had as many as 12 on the roll.
With these, plus other children who attend the Centre for various
forms of therapy only, the Centre maintained an average of 65 children
under treatment throughout the year, including three from overseas.
The Hostel, which is maintained by the Friends of the Spastic Centre
and which can provide residential facilities for up to six children and,
if necessary one or two mothers, was well utilised.
Endeavour to improve facilities is constant and the past year has seen
an extension of the loop induction system which now enables children with
hearing losses to be included in Group activities with normal hearing
children in all the classrooms and in the garden, extension of the available
playing space in the garden, improved accommodation for occupational thereapy
and the provision of a glass verandah in the garden which will enable some
children to remain out of doors even in inclement weather.
Perhaps the greatest improvement however, was the long awaited start on
a hydrotherapy pool which, when completed will prove of tremendous
physiotherapeutic value to the children.
The clinical work includes, for all cases, routine neurological
examination, full psychological, audiological and ophthalmological tests
and the making of a clinical film. The Centre now holds a unique collection
of nearly 300 films which are priceless for research purposes.
The electro-encephalogram department accepts adult patients from a
number of hospitals in addition to the children of the Centre and it produces
over 500 records each year.
In October, 1961, a post-graduate course was again held and lectures
and demonstrations on the etiology, pathology and management of cerebral
palsy were given to doctors and physiotherapists.