London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
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Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
London County Council 1962
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for London County Council]
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In numbers practically all categories shown in table (iii) increased but proportionately
there were more informal admissions on initial disposal to hospital than in 1961—24.0
compared with 22.0 per cent. for those under 65 years and 37.1 compared with 32.4 per
cent. for those aged 65 years and over. Compared with 1961, final disposal showed proportionately
fewer patients retained in hospital under compulsion—17.4 compared with 20.0
per cent. for persons under 65 years and 4.8 compared with 8.7 per cent. for old people
aged 65 years and over.
In my report for 1961 I commented on the high proportion of old people admitted to
hospital in the first instance under the compulsory sections of the Mental Health Act. An
investigation of this aspect during a part of 1962 showed that of the compulsory admissions
of old people 62 per cent. had been seen by a psychiatrist before admission. The reasons
given for requesting compulsory admission were—because of the disturbed state of the
patient 91.7 per cent.; because of delay in admission which would otherwise have
occurred 4.6 per cent.; that the patient was known to the hospital and unacceptable
informally 3.7 per cent.
Table (iv)—
| 1961 | 1962 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | % | No. | % | |||
| Hospital care: | ||||||
| Informal admission | 32 | 2.3 | 81 | 3.7 | ||
| Compulsory admission | 6 | 0.4 | 36 | 1.7 | ||
| Psychiatric out-patient clinic or day hospital | 20 | 1.4 | 62 | 2.9 | ||
| Community care of mental health service | 1,113 | 79.1 | 1,656 | 76.3 | ||
| Other community care, e.g., Welfare or Children's | ||||||
| dept., general practitioner, probation officer, etc. | 61 | 4.3 | 84 | 3.9 | ||
| No further action | 176 | 12.5 | 249 | 11.5 | ||
| No. of persons involved | 1,408 | 100.0 | 2,168 | 100.0 | ||
| 1961 | 1962 | |||||
| No. | % | No. | % | |||
| Hospital care | 49 | 4.5 | 71 | 5.3 | ||
| Community care of mental health service: Residential home, hostel, convent, etc. | 36 | 926* | 84.1 | 451 | 1,078* | 80.3 |
| Attendance at training centre | 102 | 77 | ||||
| Receiving visits from mental welfare officer | 904 | 1,054 | ||||
| Other types of community care | 30 | 33 | ||||
| Other community care, e.g., Welfare or Children's depts., general practitioner, probation officer, etc. | 22 | 2.0 | 51 | 3.8 | ||
| No further action | 86 | 7.8 | 143 | 10.6 | ||
| Miscellaneous | 17 | 1.6 | - | - | ||
| 1,100 | 100.0 | 1,343 | 100.0 | |||
With both mentally ill and subnormal persons the pattern of care for patients referred
during 1962 remains similar to that of the previous year.
At the end of the year 2,211 (1,321) mentally ill persons and 5,030 (4,732) mentally
subnormal or severely subnormal were receiving some form of community care. Table (v)
analyses the various types of care being given, from which it will be seen that 6,897 (5,724)
persons were being visited by mental health social workers, 341 (304) were being provided
with residential accommodation and 1,496 (1,430) were receiving training at day centres
or in their own homes.
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