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35
Students
The Training Officer continues to supervise the practical work of
student social workers in the service. In 1969 some 20 students attended
for practical training and contributed to the life and work of the service.
Visitors
Again this year visitors have come from many countries and from other
local authorities and Hospitals in this country, to be shown the mental
health services provided by this Borough.
The Unified Industrial Therapy Service
The progress of this service was steady and unspectacular in a year
dominated by the transfer of the headquarters of the service (the Crosfield
Industrial Unit) to a new purpose built factory.
Diagrams showing the structure of the service and the functions of the
centres in it can be found on pages 125 - 127.
Other relevant statistics appear on pages 122 - 124.
The principles of the service - the rationalisation and centralisation of
contract seeking - have now been applied for over four years and are firmly
established. During 1969 a Psychiatric Day Centre and a Day Hospital (new
additions to the mental health service) were incorporated into the organisation.
The total value of completed contracts amounted to £72,000.
I again record with appreciation the support, guidance and advice given
by the local industrialists who make up the Crosfield Industrial Advisory
Panel, and the Croydon & District Society for Mentally Handicapped Children.
Mention must be made of the Department of Employment & Productivity,
not only for its generous grant towards the cost of building the new Crosfield
factory, but for the co-operation which has been extended at all levels by
officers of that Department.
The three principal Health Department units in the service are:—
(i) the Crosfield Industrial Unit (the Sheltered Workshop);
(ii) the Bensham Assessment & Rehabilitation Centre and
(iii) the Waylands Craftwork, Training & Social Centre (Health Wing).
1. Crosfield Industrial Unit
This unit for severely disabled persons of all categories is a sheltered
workshop, approved as such under the Disabled Persons (Employment) Acts
1944/58. It is the headquarters and principal co-ordinating agency of the
industrial therapy service.