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Hospital Admissions
Some severely subnormal persons are handicapped to such an extent that only
hospitals can provide the type of care they require. There is an acute shortage of
beds for such patients and South Ockendon Hospital has a long waiting list. Only
three Enfield patients were admitted for permanent hospital care during 1967 and
at the end of the year 16 were on the waiting list including 12 urgent cases. To
relieve this unhappy situation, the council undertook the maintenance of three
severely subnormal children in residential homes pending their eventual transfer
to hospital.
Guardianship
Placing a patient under guardianship does not confer extra powers to provide
services that are available to mentally disordered persons within the community
under Section 28 of the National Health Service Act, 1946. It merely provides
powers of control, e.g. over the patient's place of residence and his every-day life,
which may be necessary in the case of a small minority of patients for their own
welfare.
In general, the duties of guardians are to act in the absence or unsuitability
of the parents, and their powers are similar to those of a father over a child under
the age of 14 years.
It was found necessary to place two mentally subnormal persons under the
council's guardianship during the year and three persons were still under the formal
guardianship of the council at the end of the year, suitable accommodation being
provided in each case.
Residential Accommodation and Informal Foster Care
Since there are, as yet, no homes or hostels in the borough for the mentally
subnormal, various voluntary homes, convents and local authority hostels are used
for the informal accommodation of selected cases. Ministerial approval has been
given for the provision of a 20-place hostel for mentally subnormal children, the
site has been allocated and plans are at an advanced stage. So far as possible,
contact is maintained between patients and their families. Arrangements are made
with the local health authority in which the homes are situated to ensure continuity
of supervision, and, in addition, the Principal Medical Officer for mental
health visits each case and reports on the placement. The Guardianship Society,
Hove, continues to provide suitable foster homes for 20 Enfield residents, 12 of
whom attend training centres in the Brighton area.
New placements during the year included three men, for whom the council
accepted responsibility at a hostel run by Bristol Corporation, on transfer from a
mental hospital.
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