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40
to cope with their problems in adolescence. Close contact is maintained with the Youth Employment
Bureaux. It is usual for such boys and girls to be well integrated into the community by about 18
years and community care is then withdrawn, but consideration is given to each patient and if
necessary support is continued indefinitely.
For lower grades of severely subnormal adults community care is never withdrawn and, as the
parents age, is intensified. When the home background can no longer provide suitable care, accommodation
is sought by the City Council and financial responsibility for maintenance undertaken.
The City Council has taken over the London County Council project for providing a hostel for
subnormal young men. This hostel is in course of erection and should be ready for occupation early
in 1967.
Under the Ministry of Health Circular 5/52 short-term care for the subnormal and severely subnormal
can be provided to meet family crises. The City Council has continued this service and has
been able to find places, sometimes with a struggle, for all patients who require such help. Long-term
care for severely subnormal children requiring hospital admission is proving difficult on account of
the shortage of accommodation in the catchment area hospitals, and the Council has had therefore,
to find alternative places while hospital vacancies are awaited. Although the City has no residential
accommodation within its own area, it is giving vigorous support to patients of all kinds placed in
voluntary homes, and senior members of the mental health team are visiting these homes.
Since the City Council assumed responsibility for mental health services there has been an increase
in co-operation with outside agencies, both statutory and voluntary. The service is becoming recognized
as part of the general personal health services given by Westminster to its citizens and not as an
isolated unit unrelated to general welfare.
The City of Westminster Society for Mentally Handicapped Children had, with the help of the
London County Council, established in Paddington the Frances House day nursery for mentally
handicapped children. The City Council has continued to provide financial support for this venture and
is working very closely with the Society. The City Council's senior medical officer in mental health is a
member of the Nursery Committee and acts as its adviser in many specialized matters. The official
opening of the Nursery by Lord Grenfell was the first public function in Westminster directly concerned
with mental health.
During 1965, the Institute of Social Psychiatry approached the City Council with a view to the
development of day centres within its boundaries. Arrangements were made to open such a Centre
in accommodation owned by the City Council at No. 1 St. Mary's Terrace, Paddington. Work of
adaptation was commenced during 1966 and was still in hand at the time of preparing this Report.
The Salvation Army were anxious to open a nursery in premises in Oxford Street to help mothers
of mentally handicapped children when they came to London. The City Council approved the use
of the premises for a one-day a week nursery and in April, 1966 this imaginative project was inaugurated.
Other fields of co-operation are now being explored with the Salvation Army and it is anticipated that
there will be useful developments in the coming year.
The details below give an indication of the volume of work undertaken in these various spheres,
but no table of figures can give any picture of the large number of demands made on the mental health
team. As mental disorder is no respecter of persons, the mental health service receives requests for
help not only from its permanent citizens, but from many temporary residents among whom are people
who do not normally require local authority personal health services; and in its future development
the mental health service must expand to meet the infinite variety of personal problems that sufferers
from mental disorder cannot solve alone.
Mentally Disordered Patients
The total number of patients referred for consideration during 1965 was 821, of whom 440 were
admitted to psychiatric hospitals either informally or under Order; 344 were received into community
care.
Most of the cases referred who are not admitted to hospital or homes are taken into community
care. In some instances, following investigation, no mental health action appears possible or necessary
but if required these patients are referred to another appropriate agency or department.
Residential Care
The City Council maintains in residential homes, hostels and other suitable establishments, 42
mentally ill patients and 29 subnormal and severely subnormal patients. Fourteen additional subnormal
and severely subnormal patients are the responsibility of this Authority's Children's Department.
(See Tables 41, 42, 43 and 44, pages 70 and 71.)