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centre, Tooting, began in 1963 and the provision of a second occupational therapist was
authorised in 1964. The Council also agreed to cooperate with Tooting Bec hospital
by allocating a psychiatric social worker for half time at Tooting Bec day hospital.
Social work with alcoholics—Since 1963 the Council has made a grant to the Royal
London Discharged Prisoners' Aid Society, representing 90 per cent of the salary of a
social worker employed on work with alcoholics, both prior to and after discharge from
Wandsworth Prison.
Samaritan service—Since 1964 the Council made a grant to the St. Giles Centre (formerly
Camberwell Samaritans), towards the cost of employing a psychiatric social worker
to organise the social work of the centre and the training of a corps of 'Befrienders' for
persons faced with social problems. A grant to the Samaritans towards the cost of services
provided for persons on the verge of suicide was authorised in 1964.
Crude spirit drinking—Following a noticeable increase in crude spirit drinking in certain
parts of London, particularly Stepney, Southwark and the City of London, the Council
in 1963 set up a special sub-committee to consider this problem. During 1964 a large
number of interested statutory and voluntary bodies were contacted and invited to give
their views as to the best way of dealing with the problem and a comprehensive report
by the sub-committee was submitted to the Council early in 1965.
Social work in the mental health service
The Principal Mental Health Social Worker reports:
The mentally ill—As applied to mental illness, preventive care in a broad sense covers
a very wide field in which all public health and other social services are involved, from the
maternity and child welfare clinics to the old people's welfare committees, from the school
to the housing office. It is usual to distinguish between preventive and after-care work,
but this is often an artificial distinction, for the mental health social worker concerned with
community care, as with all after-care, aims at preventing a relapse.
It must be emphasised that the community care service for both the mentally ill and the
subnormal is a permissive one, in that the person concerned and/or the relatives have a
right to refuse to accept it: there is no question of a power to enforce, even where this may
seem very desirable. The only exception to this rule is where the patient is the subject of
a compulsory order, which may be during a period of up to six months on leave of absence
from hospital or where a guardianship order is in existence, but these together represent
a very minute proportion of those receiving community care. It follows that for the
service to be effective the mental health worker must aim at securing the goodwill and
maximum co-operation of all concerned. This calls for qualities of sympathy and understanding
coupled, of course, with the right degree of detachment. It requires the capacity
not only to listen but to withdraw at the right moment. The work is therefore physically
and emotionally demanding. The mental health team bears the brunt of this but other
social workers in the department are inevitably confronted by mental health problems
with which they must deal, not least the Council's health visitors who do a great deal of
therapeutic value in the course of their work.
Referrals come from many quarters and the number known to the service increases
steadily. The community has, of course, always carried a heavy burden of mental illness
but until comparatively recently the load was lightened by long term hospital care, sometimes
for a lifetime. With changed attitudes and - more important - modern methods
of treatment (including the use of new drugs), and the decrease in the use of compulsory
powers, the average stay in psychiatric hospitals is now very short. On return from hospital,
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