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83
Queen Mary's, Roehampton
A medical officer attends the Paediatric Department twice
weekly to help in the assessment of children attending the
Cerebral Palsy Unit.
A Paediatric Registrar undertakes two weekly clinical sessions
in local authority child health centres.
Further association with the Paediatric Departments of these
hospitals is in the planning stage. The recognition that the assessment
of a handicapped child is but the beginning of an on-going process
of planning for his follow-up, both immediate and long-term
and requiring the specialist knowledge of the hospital paediatrician
and the doctor familiar with the facilities in the community, is one
of the most important facets of child care today.
Medical students, hospital nurses and administrative staff continue
to attend the local authority clinics and schools to gain
experience of the facilities which cater for all children who live
in the community.
Handicap and observation register
For the past six years a comprehensive register of handicapped
children and of children at risk of developing a handicap has been
kept in the Health Department. It has proved a most useful
statistical guide but more important it has continued to alert us to
the value of the early detection and treatment of defects.
In 1971, 1,366 children under the age of five were included in the
Register out of a total pre-school population of about 25,000.
All children on the Register are examined regularly for defects
and developmental screening tests are carried out periodically.
The completeness of the register depends on co-operative effort.
Throughout the year the collaboration of all concerned, that is,
clinic doctors, hospital specialists, general practitioners and others,
has been excellent and the exchange of information has made it
possible to follow-up handicapped children in the Borough on a
selective basis. Many of the children who are under the supervision
of the Social Services Department are also placed on the
register for, even when not handicapped physically or mentally,
they may be considered to be socially deprived and at risk of
being disturbed emotionally.
The development of the closer liaison with hospital paediatric
departments already mentioned cannot help but benefit the service
provided for handicapped children.