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The mental welfare officers endeavour to establish an unbroken relationship
with all classes of patients admitted to hospital and, where necessary, advice and
assistance are also given to the patient's family whilst he is in hospital. During the
year the number of patients referred for supportive after-care was 443 compared
with 291 in 1968, and the number of home visits to mentally ill patients totalled
5,379 in addition to 752 office interviews.
Hospital Admissions
Part IV of the Mental Health Act, 1959, provides for the compulsory admission
of patients to hospital and also their placement under guardianship. The principal
features of this procedure are that application is made by the nearest relative or a
mental welfare officer, and is supported by a medical recommendation.
An admission for observation in emergency (for up to 72 hours) requires one
medical certificate. For admission for observation or for treatment other than in an
emergency, two medical certificates are required, one of which must be given by a
doctor approved by the local health authority as having specialist knowledge of the
type of mental disorder from which the patient is suffering.
In approving medical practitioners for this purpose under Section 28 of the
Mental Health Act, 1959, local health authorities are required to consult not less
than two members of the local advisory panel for the area as to the experience of
the doctor concerned, and shall not approve the application for such purposes unless
two doctors of the panel so consulted are satisfied that he possesses such special
experience. The local advisory panel consists of consultant psychiatrists appointed
by the North-East Metropolitan Regional Hospital Board.
During the year, one medical practitioner was approved by the Council for this
purpose and ten were listed in the borough as having been so approved at the end
of the year.
Every effort is made to arrange for admission of patients to hospital informally,
and 120 were so admitted in addition to 142 compulsorily removed to hospital by
mental welfare officers under Part IV of the Mental Health Act, 1959. The proportion
of compulsory admissions to hospital has increased recently and this may well be
related to inadequate preventive social work support due to staff shortage.
Certain of the mental welfare officers are approved by the London Boroughs of
Barnet and Redbridge in order to facilitate dealing with Enfield patients at Friern
Hospital, which is within the administrative area of Barnet, and at Claybury and
Goodmayes Hospitals, which are within the administrative area of Redbridge.
Day Rehabilitation Centres
No provision exists in the borough at present. The demand has been considered
in the Ten-Year Plan, in which three workshops or occupation centres and a day
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