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inserted in the local newspapers and large quantities of posters and leaflets distributed.
In one division a mobile unit accompanied by a car fitted with a loudspeaker
was used during the summer months to offer immunisation on the spot;
it toured busy shopping centres and was the means of drawing attention to the
service.
There were 1,600 attendances at 15 courses of lectures on sex education
arranged for youth clubs. Five of the courses were illustrated by films and three by
film-strips. In the case of mixed clubs the course of three lectures is arranged so
that one of the lectures is given separately to boys and girls; it has been found
that this facilitates the answering of the more intimate questions. At the request of
parent-teacher associations and of mothers' meetings, 17 talks were given on the
subject—mainly dealing with the way in which sex should be taught to children.
Four of the talks were illustrated (two by films and two by film-strips). The largest
audiences were of 500 parents at a girls' secondary school and of a similar number
at a junior mixed school. The total attendance at these 17 talks was 1,490.
Exhibitions
The Council co-operated in two exhibitions during the year. The Hammersmith
Metropolitan Borough Council in connection with their Civic Week (5th to
12th March) arranged an exhibition in their Town Hall and asked that the maternity
and child welfare services provided by the Council should be included. A stand was
accordingly equipped with photographs and models showing the various facilities
available and was attended throughout the week by health visitors and domiciliary
midwives. A modern ambulance and a mobile dental unit were also available for
inspection outside the Town Hall.
In November (23rd to 30th) a mothercraft exhibition was held at the Central
Hall, Westminster, and at the request of the organisers the Council's premature
baby service was demonstrated by domiciliary midwives.
Provision of
care and
treatment
for the
mentally ill
MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES
Lunacy and Mental Treatment Acts, 1890—1930
The duty of taking initial steps to provide care and treatment for persons
suffering from mental illness is still carried out centrally from County Hall. The
proposal to decentralise the work to four district offices and subsequently to the
nine divisional offices has had to be postponed again owing to difficulties created
by the shortage of beds in observation wards and other problems but the matter is
being kept under review in order that decentralisation may be effected as soon as
circumstances permit.
Throughout the year the number of cases brought to notice tended to rise and
it was necessary to increase the staff to fifteen (compared with 13) mental welfare
officers and five assistants in addition to the senior officer.

*Of these, six men and eight women were certified and admitted to mental hospitals.
Of those patients admitted to hospitals for observation, 787 men and 1,423
women were subsequently certified and admitted to mental hospitals. It is not