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MENTAL HEALTH SERVICE
1969 has been a time of growth and development of mental health provisions in the Borough, both in
the field of social work and in its day care programme. During the year it was possible to implement previous
recommendations for the expansion of the social work service. Two new senior posts were created and
additional social work positions added to the establishment. By the end of the year all new posts were filled
and a total of 19 fieldworkers formed two separate teams.
As in past years, very many home visits were paid. In addition there was a striking increase in the
number of clients who chose to call at Finsbury Health Centre for regular casework interviews during the
day, or, in a large number of cases, on their way home from work in the evenings. For many people quiet
sessions with a social worker away from home distractions are far more therapeutic than interviews in their
own homes.
The consultant psychiatrist continued his regular weekly advisory sessions for staff at the Mental
Health office. The Principal Medical Officer is available at all times for advice on assessment and placement
of the mentally handicapped, and her special assessment and advisory clinics continued to be held regularly
throughout the year. At these the needs of mentally and physically handicapped children under school age
are assessed and their parents receive advice and support. The number of children with their parents seen at
these clinics totalled 59. In addition, 47 children were seen in their own homes and 20 in day nurseries.
LIAISON WITH HOSPITALS
Our links with Friern and Halliwick Hospitals have been maintained. During the year a social worker
and a day centre supervisor have joined in a discussion group at Friern Hospital held on a fortnightly basis
for hospital and local authority personnel. Sometimes, at the request of a hospital psychiatrist, a local
authority social worker will begin working with someone who is still an in-patient in one or other of these
hospitals, and then continue to work with him on discharge thus easing the passage from hospital to life in
the community. The mental health staff is also co-operating in a piece of research at Friern Hospital, which
began during the year under the auspices of the National Institute for Social Work Training.
Two psychiatric social workers, jointly appointed by the Council and the psychiatric department of
St. Bartholomew's Hospital, have helped to develop the friendliness and close collaboration between the two
departments. During the year the head psychiatric social worker at the hospital worked part-time in our
mental health section for a period of three months in order to gain some first hand experience of the work.
LIAISON WITH GENERAL PRACTITIONERS
General practitioners are now making more use of the social work service and a number joined the
social workers at the monthly seminar run by Dr. Alexis Brook, consultant psychiatrist, at which the case
for discussion is jointly presented by a general practitioner and a social worker. There continued to be a
demand for the regular attachment of mental health social workers to general practitioners in order to work
weekly in their surgeries. Through this work it is sometimes possible to reach people with psychiatric
problems at a very early stage. This is a small though positive contribution towards preventive work, which
aims at maintaining mental health rather than working exclusively in the field of after-care. The increased
extent to which this service has been used by general practitioners during the year suggests that there is
likely to be a demand for many more of these social worker attachments in the future.
HOSPITAL ADMISSION
In spite of development in community care, it is still necessary to provide a 24 hour emergency rota
in which most of our social workers share once they have acquired the necessary skill and experience to
participate in this service.
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