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The Sister came from hospital duties with no special experience with healthy,
handicapped children, but with an enormous enthusiasm and a remarkable aptitude for
handling staff. The Warden returned from her visit to the Training Centre, interested
in the problems of the mentally retarded, and one Staff Nurse deputises for the Sister
and has nursing qualifications, the other has experience in nursery schools and with
handicapped children. Of the 3 Nursery Assistants, 2 returned to the centre from the
day nursery and one was appointed. All the staff have shown enthusiasm, kindness and
understanding of the problems of the children.
The Regional Hospital Board agreed to the appointment of a part-time physiotherapist
who attended 4 sessions a week, though in the last few months of the year the
demands by the hospitals on her time increased and the nursing staff have taken over 2
of the sessions.
It has been agreed that 20 mentally or physically handicapped children should
attend, and while the work of conversion was going on and staff appointed, visits were
made to the homes of those children on the register who were known to be severely
handicapped or whose home conditions or family circumstances could not give them the
help they needed; or a few cases whose mothers had borne the brunt of the constant care
of a severely defective child and were themselves in need of assistance.
It is here that we were faced with the problem of the remaining 4 mental defectives
who had already been ascertained and reported to the Health Authority, but for whom
residential or day placement had not then been found. The parents of these children
had been the encouragers and enthusiasts for the scheme throughout the years, and
although their children were no longer eligible it was felt that they should be admitted
until accommodation could be found for them by the Mental Health Authority. This
was rapidly forthcoming in the case of two of the children, and a third was placed after
5 months, and there remains only one whose parents have refused residential training
and who is unsuitable for the Day Training Centre because of his associated physical
handicap.
The first 20 children recommended all had very serious degrees of handicap, which
is to be expected as they were those whose mothers were finding it difficult to manage.
Of these,
4 were severe spastics—only 1 able to walk with support
1 hemiplegic
1 spina bifida and hydrocephalic—legs paralysed
1 mongol
2 blind
4 mental defectives
2 mentally retarded—no speech
2 congenital heart
1 poliomyelitis
1 premature—severely physically retarded
1 blind and defective
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