View report page

82
meetings led to a most successful party which was organised
mainly by the residents (with perhaps a measure of secret background
support from the staff !). Residents also organised a most
enjoyable river trip and other outings to the cinema and local
authority clubs. As well as being involved in these social and
communal activities, both social workers spent a great deal of their
time doing individual case work with patients. This included the
assessment of the residents' social problems when they first arrived
in the unit and helping them to return to work and cope with the
consequential stresses and strains.
One reason why this residential unit appears to be very necessary
is that there are many socially-isolated patients who, although
able to work and, in this sense, to leave hospital, are unable to
cope with other aspects of ordinary life, such as making friends
and being responsible for the day-by-day details of normal living.
The unit serves as a bridge between hospital and outside life and
so helps patients to acquire these attributes so important to successful
existence in the modern world.
Working in the unit is proving to be an interesting new venture
in inter-disciplinary co-operation, and it is a fruitful experience
for the social worker to work so closely with psychiatrist and
nursing staff.
Secondment of Mental Health Social Worker to Wandsworth
Town Child Guidance Unit
At the request of the Inner London Education Authority, a
mental health social worker was appointed on a half-time basis to
this unit, and took up her appointment in August, 1968.
This has already proved a most useful venture, close relationships
having been formed between clinic and local health authority
staff.
Mental Health Social Workers linked with General Practices
One of the most important developments in the mental health
service in 1968 was the project of linking social workers to general
medical practices.
Following on the symposium held in 1967, at which a general
practitioner suggested that it would be helpful to link social workers
with general practitioners, arrangements were made for a psychiatric
social worker to spend one afternoon session a week in the
surgery of a general practitioner in the Wandsworth Central area.
The social worker has been carrying out this work for 12
months, and in the year has had 68 surgery interviews. Most of
the patients referred were young married women at home, perhaps
because the session was held in the afternoon. Many of the
patients were presenting physical symptoms and would not