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modation was provided in 36 cases and in 102 cases arrangements were made for attendance
at a training centre. At the end of the year 1,267 children under 16 years and 3,325 persons
over 16 were being visited by the mental health social workers.

Conclusion
From the foregoing paragraphs it will be apparent that the Council has given very
careful consideration to the duties placed on local health authorities by the Mental Health
Act, 1959; that real progress has been achieved in improving and expanding the services
for the care and training of mentally disordered persons in the community; and that the
implementation of future proposals, already planned, will go some way towards meeting
the recommendations of the Royal Commission on the Law Relating to Mental Illness
and Mental Deficiency.
As the number of mentally disordered persons living in the community increases,
however, the demand for the facilities provided by the Council will inevitably grow and the
development of the mental health services to meet this demand will place increasing
responsibilities on the Council. In the immediate future it will not be possible, for various
reasons, e.g. shortage of staff and difficulties in obtaining sites and buildings, for the
Committee to meet all its obligations under the Mental Health Act, 1959.
As already stated, one of the most onerous tasks facing the Council is the provision of
residential accommodation. It is unlikely that sufficient accommodation can be provided
for some years to come to permit of appropriate care being given for the large numbers of
persons, both in hospital and in the community, for whom the special facilities of the
hospital services are not essential. In the meantime, it is hoped that hospital authorities
will be forbearing in avoiding too rigid an interpretation of the duties now placed on local
health authorities in this regard.
There is no doubt that the efficiency of a local health authority's mental health services
depends upon close co-operation both within the authority's own services and with outside
agencies. Mutual consultation and exchange of information and ideas are essential if the
fullest development is to be achieved. In London arrangements have been made for the
divisional medical officers to establish links with the psychiatric hospitals and general
practitioners serving their areas, by means of visits by medical staff and social workers to
the hospitals and of local meetings of general practitioners to which the physician superintendents
of the hospitals have been invited. Achievement of the maximum degree of
personal contact with hospital staffs has been hampered to some extent by the location of
the psychiatric hospitals, most of which are a long way from their London catchment areas.
The future provision of psychiatric beds in general hospitals would not only be of benefit to
relatives in avoiding long journeys to visit patients in out-county hospitals but would also
have the great advantage of fostering closer relations between the staff of hospitals and the
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