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mental welfare officer endeavoured by all possible means to convince the patient that
he was ill and to assure him that it was intended to take him to hospital and not to
prison. Finally, at about 7 a.m., he entered the room, but the patient closed with him
and in the course of the struggle the mental welfare officer was bitten on the chin and
leg. The police gave prompt assistance in restraining the patient, who was sedated by
the mental welfare officer and then admitted to St. John's hospital mental observation
ward, Battersea.
After conveying the patient to the observation ward, the mental welfare officer
called at St. Thomas's hospital for attention to his injuries. He had then completed his
tour of night duty and, after the normal rest period, returned to duty on 18th March,
apparently recovered from his ordeal which, although exceptionally severe in this case,
is the sort of experience the mental welfare officers may be required to face in any of
the cases they have to deal with.
There is at present unfortunately no nationally organised course of training for mental
welfare officers. This does not mean, however, that they receive no training at all for
their work. In 1948, when this work was first placed under the direction of medical
officers of health, relieving officers with experience in the work were transferred to
form the nucleus of the staff of mental welfare officers under the new arrangements.
Many of these officers were in possession of the certificate of the Poor Law Officers
Examinations Board, the examination for which included the subject Lunacy and
Mental Treatment. Since then trained social workers, mental and general trained nurses
and others with suitable experience and character have been appointed to fill the
vacancies that have arisen. In London, a part-time consultant psychiatrist was engaged
at the outset to advise on matters of policy and to supervise the work of the mental
welfare officers. In the performance of the latter duty, the psychiatrist has given lectures
to the staff, has advised them on difficult cases and has investigated complaints (in most
of which, incidentally, he has upheld the action of the mental welfare officer). The
consideration of individual cases is, of course, a valuable means of training.
In addition, the psychiatrist has introduced a system of statistical recording which
ensures that the officers must always keep in mind all the essential considerations involved
in their work and also records tendencies and results on which future policies are planned
and directions given to the officers.
As a part of their training, all officers also visit mental hospitals and psychiatric
out-patients clinics to observe and to take part in discussions with the medical and other
staff.
Apart from these methods, all new officers are given basic training, the length of
which is, of course, to some extent influenced by their previous experience, by their
more experienced colleagues, and they are not permitted to exercise their powers
independently until they have worked for a period under the wing of an experienced
officer and the senior mental welfare officer is fully satisfied that they are competent to
work alone.
Homes and
hostels
As regards the Royal Commission s proposals for the provision by local authorities
of day and residential occupation and training centres and homes and hostels, the
Council has long been alive to the need for these establishments for all types of mentally
disordered patients. In the schemes which the Council submitted to the Minister in
1948 under sections 28 and 51 of the National Health Service Act, 1946, it stated that
the Council would (i) make use of homes found by voluntary organisations for patients
who do not or have ceased to need treatment in a mental hospital and would consider
itself making direct provision in suitable cases and (ii) would consider the provision of
hostels for mental defectives under guardianship.
The Council has made use of homes found or provided by voluntary organisations,
principally the Mental After-Care Association, for the long-term and short-term care
of persons suffering from mental illness and it has provided a small hostel for twelve
mentally defective girls at Dover Lodge, Wood Vale, S.E.23, the first of its kind in the