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The Council's mental health social workers, however, are available to general practitioners
for visiting persons suffering from mental disorder and, if necessary, for making arrangements
for their admission to hospital, either under compulsory procedures or informally.
In my report for 1959 I gave a comprehensive account of the psychological services for
children in London, in which references were made to the child guidance services and to
preventive mental health work in the maternity and child welfare services. Further reference
to these subjects will be found on pages 84 and 49 respectively in this report.
Diagnostic clinics—The Royal Commission on the Law relating to Mental Illness and
Mental Deficiency urged the need for a diagnostic service for severely subnormal and
psychopathic patients and indicated that the initiative in organising such a service should
generally lie with local health authorities.
Diagnostic clinics have been set up in all divisions in London where parents and
relatives of mentally subnormal children can obtain advice and help. These clinics were
primarily designed to cater for children under the age of five years, rather in the nature
of special maternity and child welfare clinics for parents who, because of their child's
obvious mental abnormality, were unwilling to bring them to the ordinary clinic. It was
soon evident, however, that the clinics were filling a real need and their number and scope
were extended until at present they offer a very similar service to the out-patient department
of a hospital, where a patient can not only be diagnosed and the nature and severity of
mental disorder explained to the parent but where 'follow-up' examinations can be
arranged and the various facilities available for the care, education and training suitable
for each individual case indicated and necessary arrangements made. These diagnostic
clinics are staffed by specialist medical officers, all of whom are approved under section
28 (2) of the Act as having special experience in the diagnosis or treatment of mental
disorder, and are also attended by mental health social workers and health visitors.
Facilities for consultation with the senior consultant staff at the County Hall are readily
available and consultation with other specialists can also be arranged.
Admission to hospital and guardianship
The Council's mental welfare officers provide a continuous service, available through
the 24 hours of each day, to receive and act upon calls received from general practitioners,
hospitals, police, the public, etc. During office hours such calls are received and dealt
with divisionally, but outside normal office hours a nucleus of staff is maintained on duty
at the County Hall to deal with any emergency arising in the London area.
During 1961, 5,750 persons who were alleged to be mentally ill and in urgent need of care
and control were referred to the Council's mental welfare officers for investigation, of whom
4,141 were removed to hospital. About one-tenth (550) of the cases were referred between the
hours of 9 p.m. and 9.15 a.m., which was less than half of the number referred during those
same hours in 1957, when the proportion was about one-sixth of the total cases referred.
Not all these cases were so urgent as to require a visit the same night, but of 467 cases
visited 346 were admitted to hospital; no immediate action was found to be necessary in
the remaining 121 cases.
Hospitals serving the area—Only two of the nine psychiatric hospitals which admit
mentally ill patients from London are within the county area, i.e. Springfield hospital,
Tooting and Tooting Bec hospital. The remaining seven are Bexley hospital, Bexley;
Banstead hospital, Sutton; Cane Hill hospital, Coulsdon; Horton hospital, Epsom;
Long Grove hospital, Epsom; West Park hospital, Epsom; and Friern hospital, New
Southgate. In addition five of the London general hospitals, i.e. St. Clements, St. John's,
St. Francis, St. Pancras and Fulham, provide emergency wards for the admission of
patients for observation. At the end of the year 210 beds were provided at these general
hospitals for such cases and mental welfare officers arranged the admission of 1,442
patients to these wards during 1961.
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