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After-care by the mental health social workers — 147
Services for the blind or partially sighted — 91
Requiring admission to psychiatric hospital — 85
Services for the mentally subnormal — 32
A place in one of the department's mental health hostels — 26
Services for the deaf or hard of hearing — 16
In addition, 152 new cases were referred to the social workers
for investigation or reports in 102 of which mental health social
workers made the necessary enquiries. 1106 of the 1498 new
cases were helped by social workers in the social welfare
section, the remainder by social workers in the mental health
section.
To help the section organise its work with new cases to the
best advantage of the families and individuals concerned, a
careful check was kept on the methods and times of referral. This
showed that during 1967 37% of the new cases came to the notice
of the section by telephone, 25% by letter, 18% by personal visit
to the office, 6% came through Warley Hospital, the remaining
14% in other ways. Those coming to the office were usually
people wanting help for themselves, rather than asking the
section to help others. These office visitors tended to come in
during the morning rather than the afternoon, 65% arriving before
1 p.m.
Services for the Physically Handicapped
The number of severely physically handicapped people
known to the department during the year and requiring its services
rose by 21%. Exact figures are given in table 28.
During the year, the arrival in the section of more social
workers made it possible to begin to reduce the huge caseloads
of the two social workers who had virtually carried this service
since April 1965, and to place more emphasis on helping the
family as well as the individual. It is clear that in a number of
instances the strain of the handicap is not only on the person
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