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54
psychiatric hospital provision for the area. The three Consultant
Psychiatrists in charge of treatment at Farnborough Hospital also
work at Cane Hill and cover out-patient sessions in other parts of
the Borough. The opening of a large and modern Day Unit at
Farnborough Hospital (stage one of their plan for an up-to-date
Day Hospital), which took place early in 1967, may well provide
a focal point of contact between hospital and community services.
Child Psychiatry/Guidance
The appointment of a Consultant Child Psychiatrist to cover
all the sessions in the Borough took place in November, 1966, and
was heartily welcomed by all involved. With this appointment,
child psychiatry and child guidance have rightly merged into one
specialism, and attendance at a particular clinic or hospital is
governed by geographical considerations only. Farnborough
Hospital, where only internal referrals are accepted (see table III),
is the exception to the rule, necessitated by the scarcity of consultation
time available.
SUBNORMALITY
Size of the Problem
It would have been seen from table I that the number of new
referrals for subnormality has doubled since last year. This increase
is due to several factors: the more ready acceptance by parents of
the Special School leaver to have the youngster supervised by the
M.W.O., the very efficient case finding service with the Health
Visitor referring all young children who are retarded in their
development. Very often the Paediatricians as well report these
children to the Medical Officer of Health so that advance arrangements
can be made for their schooling or training and the family
given social support.
The new referrals on the severe subnormality side have dropped
from 53 last year to 18 this year. This drop is understandable
since we expected that all the severely subnormals were already
known to the Department and indeed practically all the 18 cases
newly referred were those of the severely subnormal children born
in the Borough in 1966.
The Young Mentally Handicapped Child
Our figures come very closely to the national statistics of
severe subnormality, the incidence rate being 3.7 per 1,000 births.
As there are close on 5,000 births per year in the Borough we can
expect 18.5 severely subnormal children born during such period.