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On discharge it is necessary to see that the mother takes her
tablets regularly and sees the psychiatrist when necessary. It is
encouraging to find that with this support she can live in the community
and look after her own husband and children.
My most difficult case is with a family where the mother is
inadequate and the father an alcoholic and sex pervert. After getting
the father into hospital and eight months of very hard work with the
mother and three children under 4½ years the father has just discharged
himself and is drinking again. I am now back to where I started
with little chance of real rehabilitation.
Another mother has a cleanliness obsession which is thought to
be incurable as no treatment so far has helped. She has a good
husband and three lovely children. The obsession has become acute
since the birth of the last baby fourteen months ago. The County
arranged a holiday for the mother and baby and I saw them off at
Victoria Station. She had refused a suitcase I offered to lend her
but purchased instead four large pure white carrier bags. The
amused glances of my travelling companions as I walked with the
gaping bags from one end of the station to the other will remain with
me always. I was very thankful that the bags did not give way and
that I have a good sense of humour.
When I feel discouraged I look back over the past five years
and feel very thankful to see families who have been helped to a new
way of life, still continuing to make good. I always say that I get
enough success to keep me going in this rather depressing work.
One young couple who had three children in three years coul.d
not get on because the father was a psychopath and had been in
trouble since he was seven years old. He had been taken into care
as being in need of care and protection, and from there he went to
remand homes, approved schools, Borstal and finally prison. He
was discharged from the Army with a 100% disability pension but lost
this through stealing, so that in between bouts of illness he had to
get national assistance. The mother fortunately is very intelligent
indeed and quite determined to get on. I took her to the Family
Planning Association and she has not had any more children and the
first child has now started school. The family were given a Council
flat when the father came out of prison on the 17th February, 1960.
I was able to get some help for them with secondhand furniture and
furnishings, etc. Since then the family has made steady progress,
the rent is paid regularly and the home kept clean. The father
cannot always get work because of his disabilities but they are free
from debt and are gradually getting the home more adequately furnished.
I am hoping this year to send this family away through the kind
hospitality of the Round Table as they have never had a holiday
together. This is a family where the wife is the stronger partner
and is intelligent and determined and the children seem to be the
same. Working with them has been a very heart warming experience.
I can say with great thankfulness that it is usually possible to
obtain within a day or two anything that I regard as necessary,
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