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Community Care.
As the statistics show, mental welfare officers visited 407 persons
during the year, consisting of 238 mentally ill and 169 mentally subnormal
patients, including those who attend the Social Club.
Social Club.
The psrchiatric social club at St. Charles's Hospital continued to
meet each Thursday throughout the year. An outing to Windsor was held
during the summer, the cost being met by the Notting Hill Council of
Social Service from the grant made by this Council.
The Mentally Sub-normal.
A further sixty-six cases were referred during the year, either by
way of the Education Act, 1944 or by removal into the borough.
It was decided that the Special Clinic, which had previously been
held solely at the Campden Hill welfare centre, should in future be
held alternately at that centre and the St. quintin welfare centre.
This was done in order to make the clinic more accessible to children
living in the northern part of the borough.
Twenty-five mentally sub-normal children were provided with shortterm
care in hospitals or private establishments, and three were
admitted to hospital for permanent care.
It was found particularly difficult to obtain permanent hospital
places for children under five years of age and, by the end of the
year, there were sixteen such children on the waiting list.
Training Centres.
In April, 1966, seventeen trainees from the Borough of Camden
were transferred from our junior training centre to a new centre
opened by the Borough of Islington, and in September an exchange was
made between Kensington and Chelsea children attending the Fulham
centre and Hammersmith children attending our centre.
The Council approved the addition of a Special Care Dnit of
twelve places at the junior training centre and it is hoped that this
Unit will be completed by the autumn of I968. In the meantime, one
boy is being accommodated in a similar Dnit provided at St. John's
Wood by the Westminster Society for Mentally Handicapped Children.
From his progress, it is felt that he will soon be able to attend the
training centre.
During the year, the annual organised holiday at Dymchurch,
New Romney, was held for the trainees of the Inner London boroughs.
The camp was under the supervision of Mr. R.F. Potter, of the North
Kensington centre, and a contingent of trainees from both our centres
attended. In addition, the men of the adult training centre had
four park outings during the summer, culminating in a Sports Day at
Richmond Park in September.
There was the usual number of visitors both from this country
and from abroad, and at the junior centre facilities were provided
for two students to obtain practical experience in the work of the
centre in connection with their Diploma courses.