View report page

Temporary Care
Short-term residential care of subnormal persons is arranged to offer relief
to parents and guardians, usually at holiday times, to allow them to take a carefree
vacation. Thirty-seven subnormal persons were admitted to hospital and nine to
voluntary homes under this scheme.
Four of these hospital admissions were to the Northaw House Children's
Hospital, near Potters Bar, provided by the North West Metropolitan Regional
Hospital Board, which continued to accept mentally subnormal children up to the
age of five years. During the year, the Ministry of Health approved arrangements
for the closure of Northaw House by the Regional Hospital Board, subject to certain
conditions in regard to the substitution by the Board of an equivalent number of
beds for mentally subnormal children at Winifred House pre-convalescent hospital
for children, Barnet Gate, Arkley, Barnet.
Holiday Camps
The Council undertook to arrange summer camps for subnormal children and
adults on behalf of the London Boroughs of Barnet and Haringey as well as for
Enfield residents. These were held at St. Mary's Bay Holiday Camp, Dymchurch,
Romney Marsh, Kent. Thirty-six children attended camp for two weeks, seventeen
adult females attended for one week, and 32 adult males also attended for one week.
These camps, which were staffed mainly by volunteers from the Council's
training centres, were very successful and thoroughly enjoyed by all concerned.
The Principal Medical Officer for Mental Health inspected the children's camp in
the course of routine visits in the area.
Families who were unable to meet the full cost contributed according to an
assessment scale.
RESEARCH
We continued to co-operate in an investigation into the incidence of certain
types of infection in mentally subnormal children initiated by Professor S. D. Elek,
of the Bacteriology Department of St. George's Hospital Medical School (University
of London), a number of parents of mentally handicapped children having given
consent for their children to participate.
DRUG DEPENDENCY
The abuse of all drugs of dependence is expressly forbidden by law. Previous
legislation had been strengthened in 1967 by the Dangerous Drugs Act, 1967, which
empowered the Secretary of State to make further regulations (under the Dangerous
Drugs Act, 1965) for preventing the improper use of drugs.
70