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83
Special care unit
A problem exists in accommodating the child over five years of
age who is not yet ready for a Training Centre. It is not always
realistic to expect a retarded child to be toilet-trained and able
to feed himself at the age of five. He may be doing very well for
his mental age and yet not have reached the standard of social
behaviour required in the Training Centre by his fifth birthday.
For this type of child a Special Care Unit is temporarily required,
and for the low-grade, helpless child a Special Care Unit may be
permanently needed. There is as yet no Special Care Unit in the
borough and this is a serious gap in our service, although we have
arrangements for the admission of six mentally subnormal children
to one of the Council day nurseries.
However, in October, 1965, arrangements were made for five
children who were unsuitable for our Training Centre to be transported
daily to the unit at Queen Mary's Hospital, Carshalton.
A guide was appointed and the cost of transport was paid by the
Council. This arrangement has been of great benefit to some very
heavily burdened families and has, to some extent, filled the gap
in our provision.
Home teaching
The Department employs a Home Teacher for those mentally
subnormal children who are too physically handicapped to attend
the Training Centre. Her services are shared among five boroughs
but she could probably be fully employed in this area alone. The
Home Teacher visited 16 subnormal children once weekly during
1965. It would in some cases be helpful if visits could be paid
more frequently but at present this is not possible. The Home
Teacher's role is to teach the child according to his individual
aptitudes and to help the parents so that they can carry on the
work daily with the child.
STAFF TRAINING
Two senior mental health social workers attended training
courses in 1965, one on the two-year North Western Polytechnic
Younghusband course, who will complete his course in August.
1966, and one on the National Institute for Social Work one-year
course which commenced in September, 1965. Both these senior
staff were seconded on full salary and were replaced in the Mental
Health team. It was possible to replace them by two qualified
Psychiatric Social Workers.
The qualifications of the social workers in the mental health
team at the end of 1965 were as follows : —
Psychiatric Social Workers 5
Social Science or Younghusband qualification 6
Qualified Mental Nurse 1
Unqualified 2