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21
CENTRE FOR SPASTIC CHILDREN - 6l/62. Cheyne Walk.
The Secretary of the Chelsea and Kensington Hospital Management
Committee has kindly supplied the following report on the work of the
Centre for Spastic Children during 1962.
The Centre for Spastic Children, which is a specialised unit
for the treatment of young patients with cerebral palsy and which forms
part of the Chelsea and Kensington Hospital Group, has continued its
work throughout the year, and some added facilities have now increased
its scope and value.
In addition to the two nursery classes for children from 2 to
7 years of age, a Special Care Unit has been formed to cater for
cerebral palsied children who are considered to be ineducable but
trainable and who benefit from being in a group with other children with
similar disabilities for whom all the treatment and training facilities
of the Centre are available.
The age range of this group has been extended upwards to 11
years and fifteen children can be accepted at any one time into this
unit. The London County Council is largely responsible for the
running costs of the Special Care Unit, assisted by the Friends of
the Centre, who themselves paid for the complete adaptation and
equipping of the accommodation for its use.
The Assessment Unit in which up to eight children may attend
for short periods of assessment, also continues to function.
In addition to those children who attend for the whole of each
school day, a number of babies and some older children attend two or
three times a week for therapy.
The Hostel which is run and financed by the Friends of the
Centre can house six or seven weekly boarders and has a Mother and
Child unit for short stay visits. All of this accommodation was well
used during the year.
The Hydrotherapy Pool which was provided through the generosity
of Richard Hearne and which, at the time of its completion, formed the
seventh of "Mr. Pastry's Pools for Spastics", has been in use almost
daily since March, 1962. It is an extremely popular form of treatment
with the children as well as being most beneficial to them.
Clinical work undertaken at the Centre includes for all cases
routine neurological examination, full psychological, audiological and
ophthalmological tests, and the making of a clinical film.
The electro-encephalogical department also plays its part in
the routine assessment of each spastic child and in addition accepts
adult and child patients from many other hospitals, producing about
700 records each year.