London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
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Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
London County Council 1937
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for London County Council]
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65
After-careers
The chief officer of the mental hospitals department has furnished the following
return for the year 1937 on after-care of children formerly attending special
schools for the mentally defective, but whose names were not notified to the Mental
Hospitals Committee as being cases in which the Education Committee were of
opinion that further aid in the form of supervision, guardianship or institutional
care under the Mental Deficiency Acts was necessary :—
Table 41
| Classification | Male | Female | Total | Grand total under headings |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| (1) Number not exceeding 18 years of age who have left special schools and who were on the books of the supervision section on 31st December, 1937 | 638 | 492 | 1,130 | 1,130 |
| (2) Number who after trial have proved themselves to be incapable by reason of mental or physical defect of undertaking remunerative employment | 28 | 43 | 71 | 71 |
| (3) Number employed as under :— (a) Industrial or manual occupations (i.e., factory work, trade or any part of a trade) | 417 | 357 | 774 | |
| (6) Agricultural or rural occupations | 2 | — | 2 | |
| (c) Domestic occupations— | ||||
| (2) Required for work at home 2 30 32 | 10 | 57 | 67 | |
| (d) Commercial, shop assistant, or selling behind a counter, office boys or girls | 14 | _ | 14 | |
| (e) Gone into army, navy or merchant service | — | — | — | |
| (/) Blind alley or other precarious occupations (i.e., vanboys, newsboys, errand boys and girls, selling from a barrow) | 114 | 2 | 116 | 973 |
| (4) Number judged to be employable but out of work | 32 | 12 | 44 | 44 |
| (5) Number whose careers have not been traced :— (a) Not visited and not seen at bureaux | 8 | 14 | 22 | |
| (6) Visited but no information obtainable | 13 | 7 | 20 | 42 |
| (6) Cases dealt with in addition to above including those who have since :— (a) died | — | 1 | 1 | |
| (6) attained the age of 18 years | 268 | 216 | 484 | |
| (e) been dealt with under M.D. Acts | 52 | 30 | 82 | |
| (d) been lost sight of, or have left London | 28 | 24 | 52 | 619 |
Stamford House remand home
The report set out below has been received from Dr. John D. W. Pearce, parttime
medico-psychologist at Stamford House remand home.
Provision has been made to deal with cases of illness occurring during the absence
of the medico-psychologist from the home by the appointment of a local
(male) general practitioner, who is paid for his services at a per capita rate, which
varies according to the hours of the day or night when his services are called for.
The number of emergency calls during the year was six.
The services of a woman doctor to examine girls who were alleged to have been
criminally assaulted have been available since 1927. The girls were, until 30th June,
1937, examined at the surgery of the doctor, but in view of the inconvenience of
this procedure, the Council decided to appoint a local woman medical practitioner
to visit the remand home to examine these girls, and in addition, when requested
by the medico-psychologist, to examine contacts of girls suffering from vulvovaginitis.
The number of girls alleged to have been assaulted, who were examined
during the year, was 51.