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MENTAL HEALTH
Miss Z. Mason, B.A., A.I.M.S.W., Principal Mental Health Officer
During the year 280 mentally subnormal and 233 mentally ill persons were referred
to the department and at the end of the year 795 mentally subnormal persons and
508 who were mentally ill were receiving some form of community care.
Social Work
At the beginning of 1969 social work was reorganised on a team basis, each team
working to one consultant psychiatrist's hospital team. This made possible much
closer co-operation with the hospital service by developing more informal and
direct channels of communication, allowing more opportunities for case discussion
and creating, we believe, a greater feeling of unity with hospital colleagues. One
further development in co-operation this year has been a regular weekly visit by
a social worker to Cane Hill Hospital.
The promotion of two mental health social workers to the position of "Senior
Mental Health Officer" later in the year made it possible for each team to be supervised
by an experienced senior officer. There are now four social work teams: one
working to Cane Hill Hospital, whose catchment area includes the S.E.26 and S.E.23
districts of the Borough, and three working to Bexley Hospital consultants' teams
—two based on Lewisham Hospital out-patient clinics and one covering the Deptford
area served by out-patient clinics, formerly at the Miller Hospital, now at the new
Greenwich District Hospital.
Apart from the catchment area hospitals, a number of referrals come from the
psychiatric departments of the London teaching hospitals, the Maudsley Hospital
and Mabledon Hospital, Dartford, and from general practitioners and other sources.
Social work for the mentally handicapped has continued to be organised on a
geographical basis, but one social worker has remained outside the team structure
to enable her to undertake liaison work with the training centres, early and special
care units and the special clinics; she works under the direct supervision of the
Assistant Principal Mental Health Officer.
One senior mental health officer specialises in the problems of alcoholism and
addiction and liaises closely with the specialist units at Bexley Hospital and attends
a session one evening a week at Castlewood Day Hospital. During the year he
developed contacts with voluntary organisations and other colleagues working in
this field and attended the first British Summer School for Alcoholism held at
Birmingham in September.
All social workers, except for one newly-appointed member of staff, undertook
statutory duties under the Mental Health Act, 1959, on a rota basis. After 10 p.m.
on weekdays and at weekends and statutory holidays the rota is operated jointly
with the Borough of Greenwich. During the year the Mental Health Section received
250 calls outside normal office hours requesting immediate action with a view to
organising hospital admission under the terms of the Mental Health Act, 1959.
During the year a survey of long-stay patients in Bexley Hospital was undertaken
by a senior mental health officer in collaboration with a consultant psychiatrist.
The results have not yet been analysed, but it is hoped that the survey will provide
information about the social needs of the mentally ill and will be helpful in planning
community services in the future.
SERVICES FOR THE MENTALLY HANDICAPPED
Special Advisory Clinics
A specialist in subnormality, who is a member of the Medical Adviser's Department,
Inner London Education Authority, continues to hold clinics for backward
children under the age of 5 years at Amersham Road and Central Lewisham Health
Centres. During the year 40 sessions were held and 184 appointments offered;
144 children were seen.
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