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Many appointments for the new department have already been made and two of our mental health social
workers have been appointed as team leaders, one as a training officer, two as senior management advisers
and two others have been appointed to senior positions in the area teams, so our social workers can
anticipate having every opportunity to play a full part in the building up of the Social Services Department.
As the transfer date draws nearer there are naturally feelings of hope and expectancy amongst the staff
concerned combined with a sense of regret at severing ties with the Health Department after six years of
development and progress.
SUMMARY OF PROGRESS
Much has happened since the 1st April, 1965. A consultant psychiatrist has been attached to the mental
health section for nearly five years and has weekly sessions with our social work team and our day centre
staff. We now have eight centres (including the Islington Society of Mentally Handicapped Children's
nursery) for day care. We are working increasingly closely with hospitals and with family doctors. There are
two hostels in process of erection. Our social work team has doubled in size and is more highly qualified
than in 1965 so that we are now able to offer social work of a high standard. Two of our senior social
workers* have had papers published in medical journals. Student training has become a regular feature of
the work. This is a record which does give us some feeling of achievement and yet we realize that in this six
years we have only witnessed a beginning of the Borough's mental health programme.
Cross fertilization of ideas in the future Social Services Department will reveal further needs. New ways
will be found to meet these needs so that in a few years' time the achievements in the first six years may be
overshadowed by future and more spectacular mental health projects. Nevertheless we prepare to hand over
the service to the new department with the conviction that a firm foundation has been laid and a standard
set for future development. There has been close team work, centre staff and social workers pulling
together, with the help and encouragement of our Principal Medical Officer and our consultant psychiatrist
to build up this specialist service. The eleven social workers who formed the nucleus of the team have
remained with us, apart from training periods, throughout the six years, and in spite of increasing numbers
a family spirit has prevailed. Although they look forward to working in a wider setting, mental health social
workers and centre supervisors naturally feel much sorrow at the breaking up of their united team. We look
back on six years of exacting work but work which has been both stimulating and rewarding.
C. M. B. Pane & * Hermione Raven "Follow-up of patients referred for termination of pregnancy." The Lancet 28.3.1970
* Dorothy Crofts "Psychiatric Social Work in a Group Practice." State of Mind: Vol. 2 No. 10 March 1969

The total number in community care at the end of the year was 852 (775).
36 (45) mentally subnormal patients and one mentally ill patient were provided with short-term
residential care during the year. Of these 20 (22) were at the Council's expense and 17 (23) in National
Health Service Hospitals.
At the end of the year the number of patients supported financially by the Council in various residential
homes and hostels totalled 67 (62), 32 (35) mentally ill and 35 (27) mentally subnormal or severely
subnormal.
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