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recognition, personal cleanliness and neatness and, with the aid of
a beautician, girls are taught the discreet use of make-up.
In the main and with the closest of co-operation between our
Mental Health Services and those of the Education Authority, the
trainees are selected from among the "leavers" of E.S.N. schools
and it is our aim to assist each individual suffering from a mental
disability to make as good an adjustment to life as his/her own
particular position and circumstances will allow.
During the summer a holiday to a Rainer Foundation Centre in
North Wales was organised. Here, among other activities, trainees
undertook with great success mountain climbing and canoeing,
proving once again that given the opportunity the mentally handicapped
can accomplish tasks thought not to be possible a few
years ago. By making a donation and loaning a vehicle, the
Greenwich Society for Mentally Handicapped Children assisted
trainees to have many enjoyable outings.
Ministry of Labour
There is normal co-operation with the local Disablement
Resettlement and Youth Employment Officers who, unfortunately
with little success, endeavour to place into employment subnormals
who, perforce, must therefore remain in the care of the Mental
Health Service. It would appear that more favourable results are
obtained by the direct approach to employers for, as problems
arise, they can be brought immediately to our notice.
Holidays
Under a scheme intended to cater for those who would otherwise
have no holiday, this year three Centre holidays were organised
and, as usual, all children and trainees were subvented at the rate
of £2 per head.
Twenty-two children from the Maze Hill Training Centre
attended, for one week in June, the purpose-built holiday home in
Norfolk owned by the National Society for Mentally Handicapped
Children. Cost to the parents was £12 6s. 0d. Some 23 trainees
from Park Vista Adult Training Centre spent a week's holiday
during May at a Cliftonville boarding house at a cost of £8 16s. 0d.
and, at a cost of £14, a further 20 trainees from Blackwall Industrial
Training Centre spent a week at the Rainer Foundation
Outdoor Pursuits Centre, North Wales, in September.
Charges for all holidays were subject to abatement under the
Council's assessment scale and some recipients paid only a few
shillings.