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ment, expansion, call it what you will, should be motivated not by
financial implications but to the end that the community will
become healthier and less dependent upon the welfare and social
services. However, whether public expenditure should be directed
towards these particular aims is a decision outside our control.
Today, life is being lived at an ever-increasing rate leaving many
people, especially the very old and the young, at times bewildered,
irritated and frightened. Is it any surprise that the incidence of
mental breakdown is rising or that more adolescents are sorely
tempted to become "drop-outs"? Preventive medicine, although
perhaps differently directed, far from being effete is as vitally
necessary as ever it was.
Nationally, we suffer from financial myopia. In the preventive
field, where advantages are not immediately apparent, we tend to
be cheeseparing whereas with the more spectacular curative procedures
we are considerably more avuncular. But the nation will
disregard preventive measures at its peril. It would be as well to
remember that, due to increased longevity, some children born
today are likely to be alive in 2070 or even 2090 along with all the
major social problems this entails. Any authority which takes no
cognisance of this situation cannot be planning seriously for the
future.
General
Lack of trained personnel in the community care field is universal
and the secondment of existing officers to various courses constitutes
a handicap to which the department must submit if any
advancement in the quality of the staff is to be achieved.
Despite the fact that three mental health social workers were
seconded for professional training, with the exception of one ward,
domiciliary visiting was maintained at a satisfactory level throughout
the year and all emergencies were met. Only by the unstinting
efforts of the available staff was this made possible.
On 2nd October, 1969, our new Industrial Training Centre for 60
mentally handicapped adults at Tunnel Avenue was officially
opened.
Two occupational therapists recruited during the year undertook
domiciliary visits to ascertain need and give advice on aids and
adaptations for the use of the handicapped.
A further two residential homes for elderly people were completed
and put into service during 1969 and the Calderwood Street
Lunch Club was established.