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171
Holidays
A scheme to provide an organised holiday during the first two
weeks in May at St. Mary's Bay Holiday Camp, Dymchurch, for
trainees from centres has the support of all London Boroughs. It
is intended to cater for those trainees who would otherwise have no
holiday. A charge of approximately £4 per week is levied but this
is subject to abatement under the Council's assessment scale and
some trainees pay only a few shillings.
Other holidays are dealt with under the short term care
schemes.
Clubs
Club facilities for the 'over 16's' are provided on Thursday
evenings at the Park Vista Centre and attendances usually range
between 25 and 30. Managed mainly by members of the Blackwall
Centre staff, the club is visited on occasions by the Principal Mental
Health Officer.
At the Albany Institute, Creek Road, a club organised by the
Blackfriars Settlement caters for the needs of boys and girls from
the Greenwich and Lewisham boroughs and this Council meets
half the cost of the social worker's salary.
The Court Youth Club held at the Congregational Church
Rooms, Court Road, Eltham, on Monday evenings encourages the
mixing of normal 'teenagers' with the mentally handicapped but
this attempt at integration has not been too successful. This
venture is entirely voluntary and no financial responsibility devolves
on the Council.
Support is provided by the Council in the shape of a minibus
to convey children on Wednesday evenings to a club at Griffin
Manor School which is organised for the 'under 16's' by the Woolwich
and Greenwich Society for Mentally Handicapped Children.
Attendances vary between 18 and 20.
Hostels
At present there is no Borough Hostel. Such a situation will
persist until the completion of the one envisaged at Ashburnham
Grove where the intention is to provide emergency long and short
term care for 25 subnormal girls and boys between the ages of 3
and 16 years. While in occupation at this Hostel, the children will
attend the Maze Hill Training Centre. Suitably placing the '16years-old'
who cannot be accommodated in private lodgings will
constitute a serious problem but consideration may be given in the
future to a scheme involving co-operation with an adjacent
authority to provide adult hostel accommodation on a shared basis.