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9
Centre, the Council agreed to this change of use. The new Centre,
known as "Battersea Training Centre", has been adapted with comparatively
little difficulty and for all practical purposes is as good
as a purpose-built training centre. It opened as such towards the
end of the year and will undoubtedly provide much greater scope
for training than the former centre. At the end of the year, progress
had been made in drawing up a new syllabus and it is
confidently hoped that once the Centre settles down, there will be
substantial benefits to those attending.
Although progress continued during the year in the building of
the hostel for mentally handicapped adults and the new Adult
Training Centre in Roehampton, it was disappointing that, owing
to construction difficulties, we had not, at the end of the year,
taken possession of the new buildings as we had expected and the
date of handing over has now been deferred until the New Year.
However, another development during the year was the approval
given by the Committee for the boarding-out of mentally handicapped
persons. While it is not likely that a great deal of use will
be made of this power in the immediate future, it is hoped that we
can begin in a small way to use this facility which, in the longer
term, is likely to be an imporant method of caring for the mentally
disordered in the community.
In parallel with the development of buildings and premises, the
salary structure of the hostel and training centre staff was reviewed,
with the result that improvements in salaries were agreed
for the staff of this service. This will give a boost to morale and
will help in recruitment of new staff and in retaining our existing
staff, who are dedicated to this very important and humanitarian
work.
While discussing the Mental Health Service, the point should
perhaps be made that it is not only in the field of the nursing
services that liaison with general practitioners and hospitals is
fostered. In fact, steps were taken during the year to strengthen
the already close ties which exist between the mental health social
workers, general practitioners and mental hospitals. Our mental
health social workers already work in teams located in various
areas of the Borough in much the same way as described above for
health visitors and home nurses. Within these teams liaison has
been established with various general practitioner practices. At
the time of writing, three of our mental health social workers have
close liaison links with three practices in the area and this is working
extremely well and is appreciated by the doctors concerned
as much as it is by the social workers. As described in earlier
reports, the close links between the mental health social workers
and various hospitals have continued.
The health authorities of many countries are becoming increasingly
concerned with problems of what has become known as
"environmental pollution". Up to fairly recent years, when one