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The ascertainment of the majority of defectives and the oversight of defectives under
guardianship continued to be carried out by medical officers and social workers on the
central staff and the supervision of defectives in their homes by social workers employed
in four local offices. During the year, the duty of making the social inquiries for the
purposes of ascertainment in respect of defectives reported to them was undertaken
from the local offices.
During the year 20,749 visits were paid to persons under supervision or on licence
from hospitals and 765 to persons under voluntary supervision, while 1,932 enquiries
were made to ascertain the home circumstances of patients in connection with the
statutory review of orders and the consideration of applications for leave of absence
or discharge.
Ascertainment
and
supervision
During the year 160 petitions for orders for institutional care and 25 for guardianship
were presented to a Judicial Authority under section 6 of the Mental Deficiency Act,
1913, and 54 children were placed in institutions by their parents under section 3 of the
Act. Three of the petitions were dismissed and in one case an order for guardianship
was made after a petition had been presented for institutional care. In addition, 27
applications for Varying Orders were made as a result of which 15 patients who had
become unsuitable for guardianship were admitted to institutions, ten patients were
transferred to other guardians and two patients were transferred from institutions to
guardianship. One of the applications for transfer from an institution to guardianship
was made by another local health authority on behalf of the Council. Eight children
whose names were on the waiting list for institutional care were found at special reexaminations
to have improved to such an extent that they could be considered educable
and their names were removed from the hst.
Petitions
The Council's medical officers continued to attend at magistrates' courts, as required,
to give evidence as to the mental condition of alleged defectives charged with criminal
offences. During the year 30 such defectives were ordered to be sent to institutions under
section 8 of the Mental Deficiency Act, 1913.
Magistrates'
courts
The shortage of vacant beds in institutions continued to cause concern. The number
of admissions fell from 306 in 1953 to 270 in 1954 and the number on the waiting hst
rose from 199 on 31st December, 1953, to 205 on 31st December, 1954. 21 patients on
the waiting hst, of whom 15 were children awaiting admission to the Fountain Hospital,
died during the year before vacancies could be obtained. Of the 205 patients who were
awaiting admission to institutions 89 lived in south-east London in the area of the South
East Metropolitan Regional Hospital Board whose institutional resources are the least
adequate of all the four Metropolitan Regional Hospital Boards, notwithstanding that
a number of patients from that area were admitted during the year to institutions not
previously available to London patients.
The need for more hospital accommodation for persons suffering from mental
deficiency was included in the representations made to the Metropolitan Regional
Hospital Boards and the Minister of Health referred to on page 87.
Institutional
accommodation
i c
During 1954, 28 patients were placed under guardianship of whom 11 were school
leavers with no satisfactory homes of their own who were considered suitable for life
in the community. They were placed under the personal guardianship of the Council's
inspectors who found them foster homes of approved standard and suitable employment
within the scope of their abilities.
At 31st December, 1954, there were 219 patients remaining under guardianship as
follows:—
48 under the personal guardianship of the Council's inspectors.
66 under the guardianship of nominees of The Guardianship Society, Brighton.
74 under the guardianship of relatives and friends.
22 under the guardianship of superintendents of voluntary homes.
Of the remainder, five were temporarily in institutions awaiting decisions as to future care,
two were receiving mental treatment in hospitals under the Lunacy and Mental Treatment
Acts and two had absconded from their guardians and were untraced.
89
Guardianship