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Secondment of Staff to Full-Time Training
In the summer of 1969 one member of staff completed a two-year course leading
to the certificate of the Central Council of Teachers of the Mentally Handicapped;
one social worker qualified as a psychiatric social worker after completing a one-year
mental health course at the London School of Economics; and another social worker
successfully completed the two-year course at the Chiswick Polytechnic, leading to
the "Certificate in Social Work".
In September, two social workers were seconded to begin a two-year "Certificate
in Social Work course and one social worker gained a place on the one-year course
for mature students at the Enfield College of Technology.
The number of staff now fully qualified in accordance with N.J.C. conditions are:—
Social workers—9 with 3 more expecting to qualify during the next two years.
Teachers of the mentally handicapped—10.
Volunteer and Voluntary Organisations
In keeping with the trend in other fields of social action, the department recognises
the need for community involvement in helping to meet the needs of the mentally
disordered. Voluntary workers not only supplement the work of professional staff,
but have a valuable contribution to make of their own. Particularly where there is
loneliness and isolation, the volunteer can often bridge a gap between the individual
and the community in ways which are outside the scope of the professional.
How to recruit volunteers? How to use them most effectively? What kind of help
from the department (informal discussion with social workers, group meetings
of volunteers with professionals, a more formal kind of basic training) would give
the best support?
Much thought has been given to these questions in recent months and a beginning
has been made in finding some answers. One mental health social worker has been
given the special responsibility of investigating ways in which volunteers could be
used and in co-ordinating their work. During the year the Tideway Social Club
has been handed over to volunteer organisers, a scheme has begun, in conjunction
with the Lewisham Association for Mental Health, for long-stay patients in Bexley
Hospital who have no relatives, to be visited regularly by volunteers. Efforts are
being made in co-operation with the Lewisham Council of Social Service to recruit
volunteers willing to do supportive home visiting and club work.
The department acknowledges the good work of those local organisations concerned
with the problems of the mentally disordered—The Friends of Honor Lea,
the Lewisham Association for Mental Health and the Lewisham Society for Mentally
Handicapped Children—with whom close links have been maintained.
The increasing interest in our work shown by young people has been one of the
most encouraging features this year. Task Force have provided many young volunteers
and local schools and youth organisations have visited our centres and offered help.
As in previous years, we continue to rely on those well-established organisations
such as the Brighton Guardianship Society, the Mental After-Care Association,
the National Society for Mentally Handicapped Children and many others, without
whom we should be at a loss to provide residential care for those who can no longer
live in their own homes.
SPECIAL REPORT
As a result of the closure of a nursing home near Southampton on 5th December,
emergency action had to be taken in respect of four mentally subnormal children
placed there, two by the Children's Department and two by the Health Department,
it is always difficult to find suitable residential accommodation for mentally subnormal
children, and on this occasion the task was made even more difficult as
some of the children in the nursing home had been suffering from sonne dysentery.
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