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PERSONAL HEALTH
Federation of Gateway Clubs. On 30th May a team of nine trainees took part
in the " Gateway Olympics organised by the Metropolitan Region of the
National Society for Mentally Handicapped Children at Caterham Barracks,
and won the Sports Cup in competition with four other teams from Adult
Training Centres in the Metropolitan Region.
Hospital Admissions
Some severely subnormal persons are handicapped to such an extent that
only hospitals can provide the type of care they require. The borough is
within the catchment area of South Ockendon and Harperbury Hospitals.
There is an acute shortage of beds for such patients and South Ockendon
Hospital has a particularly long waiting list, there being at the end of the
year 27 Enfield persons on the waiting list, including four urgent cases. To
relieve this unfortunate situation, the Council undertook the maintenance of
six severely subnormal children in residential homes pending their eventual
transfer to hospital, but some of these children had to be placed at a considerable
distance from home.
Guardianship
It was found necessary to receive one severely subnormal person into the
Council's guardianship during the year and five 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
Various voluntary homes and local authority hostels are used for the informal
accommodation of selected cases. The Guardianship Society, Hove,
tinues to provide suitable foster homes for nineteen Enfield residents, thirteen
of whom attend training centres in the Brighton area.
At the end of the year the number of mentally subnormal persons maintained
in residential homes and hostels and in informal foster care was sixty,
including twelve children.
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. Twenty-nine admissions to hospital and fifteen admissions
to voluntary homes were arranged under this scheme. Nine of the hospital
admissions were to Winifred House pre-convalescent hospital for children,
Barnet Gate, Arkley, Barnet.
Holiday Camps
Once again, a very successful summer camp for mentally subnormal children
was held for two weeks at St. Mary's Bay Holiday Camp, Dymchurch,
Romney Marsh, Kent. Forty-one children from the London Boroughs of
Haringey, Barnet and Enfield attended this camp, which was staffed by
volunteers from the Council's Junior Training School and other persons who
kindly offered their services. Nine adult females and eleven adult males
from Enfield attended the Summer Camp arranged for mentally subnormal
adults by the London Borough of Haringey at Ramsgate, Kent, for one week
in July.
Drug dependency
In 1969, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Security asked regional
hospital boards to keep local health authorities informed of the numbers of
in-patients and out-patients undergoing treatment for heroin addiction.
Full information on the illicit use of addictive drugs is notoriously difficult to
obtain and evaluate, notwithstanding the stringent regulations now in force
and the vigilance of the police. However, the Health Department has no
definite evidence pointing to drug dependency being a major problem in this
borough at present.
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