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18
Maternity and Child Welfare.
The Essex County Council maintained clinics at the following
centres throughout the year :
(i) Westland Avenue, Hornchurch.
(ii) Abbs Cross Lane, Hornchurch.
(iii) Upminster Road, Rainham.
(iv) Athelstan Road, Harold Wood.
(v) Southend Road, South Hornchurch.
(vi) St. Mary's Lane, Upminster.
(vii) Hornchurch Road, Hornchurch.
(viii) Front Lane, Cranham.
Nursing and Maternity Homes.
There are 4 registered Nursing and Maternity Homes in the district
supervised by the County Council.
Midwives and Home Nurses.
There are 9 midwives and 5 home nurse/midwives in the district
who were appointed by the Essex County Council, and are available to
act in the capacity of midwife and of maternity nurse under the supervision
of a registered medical practitioner.
In addition to the home nurse/midwives there are 6 home nurses
working in the district.
Care of the Aged.
No official action under Section 47 of the National Assistance Act
was required during the year. There was one case of an elderly female
living alone which was on the verge of necessitating action under the
Section but fortunately secured hospital accommodation by other
means.
The problem of mental health undoubtedly comes very pertinently
into the picture in a number of cases with which we are concerned. At
the one end of the scale you have a person living alone, with no relatives,
with a social conscience gradually becoming more numbed, with the
services provided by neighbours gradually falling off, with a mental
capacity gradually deteriorating and in brief drifting into a position
when action under Section 47 would become imperative. Fortunately
one is often able to secure hospital or other provision which does keep
the position on a basis that avoids public health offence.
At the other end is a person usually living alone but of perfectly
sound habits and chiefly annoying because of a mental state which
clearly demonstrates a balance delicately but firmly poised between the
normal and the certifiable. There is very naturally and rightly a keen
appreciation of the necessity for ensuring that no one be certified for
admission into a mental institution unless grounds are reasonably
beyond all doubt. There is on the other hand no doubt that in the
everyday affairs of a department like this one sees instances where there
is a degree of mental abnormality sufficient from time to time to make a
person quite incompatible in the ordinary scheme of things—and
especially as a neighbour—but about which next to nothing effective
can really be done. I do not think there is any answer to this problem,
but it does exist.