View report page

is also given to the nearest relative. At the end of 1964 there were 26 persons under
statutory guardianship, of whom 13 were placed at addresses in the care of the Guardianship
Society, Brighton.
Approval of medical practitioners for the purpose of compulsory removals and guardianship—One
of the two medical recommendations required for the compulsory admission
of a mentally disordered person to hospital or reception into guardianship must be given
by a practitioner approved by the local health authority as having special experience in the
diagnosis or treatment of mental disorder (the other certificate is normally given by the
patient's general practitioner). Before approving a medical practitioner a local health
authority must consult a professional advisory panel for its area (appointed by regional
hospital boards); any two members so consulted must be satisfied that the medical practitioner
possesses the necessary special experience before the local health authority approves
him. Approval of a medical practitioner is for five years only and may be renewed only
after compliance with the foregoing procedure. A doctor so approved may act in any part
of England and Wales.
The advisory panel in London consists of 21 members who, up to the end of 1964,
had considered 345 applications and approved 317.
Residential accommodation
The Council has long been alive to the need to provide residential accommodation
for mentally disordered persons. The scheme submitted to the Minister of Health in 1948
under section 28 of the National Health Service Act, 1946 stated that the Council would:
(i) Make use of homes founded by voluntary organisations for persons not needing
treatment in a hospital and would itself consider making direct provision in suitable
cases ; and
(ii) would consider the provision of hostels for mental defectives under guardianship.
In 1955 the Council established Dover Lodge hostel, Camberwell, the first of its kind
in the country, where accommodation is provided for up to 13 mentally sub-normal
girls who normally have no homes or whose home background is unsatisfactory. The
girls are usually leavers from schools for the educationally subnormal and the hostel
serves a very useful purpose in training them to become self-supporting members of the
community. Fifteen girls were accommodated in the hostel during 1964 and nine were
resident at the end of the year.
Since the passing of the Mental Health Act, the problem of providing residential accommodation
for various classes of mentally disordered persons has been one of the most
onerous that the Council has had to face in developing its mental health service. Whilst
recognising its ultimate obligations under the Act to provide such accommodation for a
very large number of persons, the Council decided to proceed with the provision of hostels
on a broad basis of priority for certain classes. Initially, the categories of persons for
whom hostel provision was proposed, were :
(i) Persons discharged from psychiatric hospitals and considered likely to benefit
from rehabilitation, and such other persons needing a period of hostel care to avoid
hospital admission.
(ii) Young persons of both sexes leaving residential schools for the maladjusted and
needing extra care and guidance.
(iii) Subnormal or severely subnormal children requiring short-term care to avoid
hospital admission at times of particular domestic difficulty.
(iv) Subnormal persons discharged from hospital and urgently requiring temporary
accommodation or living accommodation on a somewhat longer term basis where necessary
in the person's interests.
99