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EALING CHILD GUIDANCE CENTRE
Dr. Portia Holman, Consultant Psychiatrist, reports:—
"The number of patients referred to the Child Guidance Ciinic in 1964 was considerably
in excess of those treated; for various reasons the complete diagnostic
procedure is not followed in all cases. The psychiatrists saw 283 cases during 1964
and 112 new cases were taken on for treatment or remedial teaching. During the year
eight children were admitted to Aston School."
REPORT ON THE SCHOOL DENTAL SERVICE IN EALING
Mr. L. Mandeville, the Area Dental Officer, reports:—
"The School Dental Service has had a year of increasing demand and the dental
staff has been more settled than for some time past. The pattern of demand in each
clinic catchment area tends to change with changing staff and the school dental officer
has to build and maintain his 'practice' in much the same way as any other dental
practitioner. With a considerable choice of private dental surgeons available in much
of the Area it is a tribute to our staff that so many parents feel their children get
treatment with especial understanding of their dental problems and needs at the
School Clinic.
There is an urgent need for increased facilities at Cherington House Clinic, where
the dental suite is quite inadequate in size and design. There is a seemingly evergrowing
demand for treatment at this clinic and the dental surgeon is hard-pressed
to meet it. Unfortunately there is no quick and easy solution to this problem as
rebuilding of the dental unit can only be undertaken when considering the redevelopment
of the clinic as a whole.
It is growing increasingly difficult to recruit dental surgery assistants of the right
calibre. These ladies are essential to the smooth and efficient running of the dental
surgeries and they have considerable responsibilities. Even though we co-operate with
the Chiswick Polytechnic in providing practical surgery experience for the pupil
surgery assistants attending the full-time course there, none of them has elected to
work for us on qualification. The opportunities of private practice seem to be a
greater attraction. This is a problem that is becoming acute in the whole London
area and it is likely that steps will have to be taken to improve the conditions of
service in order to recruit staff of the right type. With the changes in London local
government that are upon us this is especially a time to look ahead. We have now
two new clinics where facilities have been provided for the employment of dental
auxiliaries. This experiment provides for the two-year training of female students at
the New Cross Hospital. They are trained in the simpler dental procedures for children
after qualification work in local authority clinics under the supervision of a qualified
dental surgeon. Neighbouring Areas have found that these auxiliaries have a valuable
part to play in the treatment of young children and in dental health education.
During the year the dental staff participated in two field surveys into particular
aspects of dental health. The first was a survey of the dental state of children of schoolleaving
age in the County of Middlesex, and the second, which was carried out in
part by health visitors and clinic nurses as well as dental staff, was a Ministry of
Health survey of children of 3-3½ years in which the dental state and use of various
vitamin supplements were investigated. Results of neither survey have been published
at the time of writing, but it can be stressed that research of this nature is essential
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