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up by the Board of Control in conjunction with Service and other Government
departments for the provision of after-care for ex-members of H.M. Forces invalided
from the services on account of psychiatric disabilities not requiring in-patient
treatment.
Research
To enable the programme of approved research work undertaken in the mental
health services under arrangements with the Rockefeller Foundation to be extended,
additions and improvements were made to the central pathological laboratory
at West Park Hospital, where the laboratory had been transferred from the Maudsley
Hospital at the outbreak of the war.
Medical
adviser on
mental
health
Dr. R. M. Stewart, medical superintendent of Leavesden Hospital, was appointed
medical adviser on mental health, for which purpose he was seconded for part-time
duty on the central staff to assist the medical officer of health on medical matters
concerning the mental health services.
Staff
The year 1944, as was only to be expected in the fifth year of war, proved
increasingly difficult in the matter of the staffing of the mental hospitals and ancillary
services. Further call-up of male staff, coupled with the diminishing availability
of young women for recruitment as nurses and domestics, made the administration
of the mental hospitals an anxious task. None the less, the service was maintained
at a creditable level of efficiency and, notwithstanding the staff limitations, the
emergency hospital section was able to play an effective part in the care of civilian
and Service sick, particularly, as regards the latter, following the invasion of Europe
on D-Day, 6th June, 1944. The depleted staff deserve the highest praise for the
devoted way in which they performed a duty which at no time was easy and which
on occasions must have tried them to the limit.
During the year the Mental Nurses Sub-Committee of the Committee on Salaries
of Nurses which had been set up under the chairmanship of Lord Rushcliffe issued
its report, a report hailed on all sides as the mental nurses charter. This report
marked a great preliminary step forward towards the integration of mental nursing
with the other branches of the nursing profession and the Council immediately adopted
and applied the recommendations contained in the report. The basis of remuneraation
of nurses, particularly for female nurses, was changed by the report and salaries
for resident staff which hitherto had been based on a gross payment with charges for
residential amenities now became payable on an emolument basis, i.e., a cash payment
with free residential amenities. Such a change, particularly as it affected the basis
of provision of meals for nurses, was not without its problems. Nevertheless, the
change-over was effected with a minimum of difficulty, thanks largely to the cooperative
spirit in which the recommendations of the Mental Nurses Sub-Committee
were received by the staff. Arising out of the recommendations of that Sub-Committee
certain new gradings were adopted by the Council, notably those relating to qualified
tutors, a new departure for most mental hospitals in the country. The Council
in deciding henceforth to employ qualified tutors for its student mental nurses
decided also to award twelve scholarships a year to enable suitable candidates from
its mental nurses to train to become qualified tutors.
Farming
operations
During the year 1944, further areas of land amounting to 235 acreas were added
to that already farmed by the mental health services, increasing the total acreage
cultivated on 30th September, 1944, to 6,559 acres (3,793 arable and 2,766 grass).
Figures for previous years were :—
30th September, 1943—6,324 acres (3,612 arable and 2,712 grass)
1942—5,983 „ (3,169 „ 2,814 „ )
1941—5,144 „ (2,239 „ 2,905 „ )
At outbreak of war—2,789 „ (1,041 „ 1,748 „ )
In addition, approximately 250 acres of land attached to general and special
hospitals and educational and social welfare establishments are under the general
supervision of the Mental Hospitals (Farming Operations Sub-) Committee.