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65
The relationships with the neighbourhood remain excellent
and the Garden Fete held in September gave pleasure to children,
parents and friends, and doubled the Amenities Fund.
Child Psychiatry and Child Guidance
The appointment of one Child Psychiatrist to cover not only
Local Authority Child Guidance sessions but also to work in the
Hospital Service, and thus be responsible for all the children
presenting behaviour or educational problems, has, as envisaged,
gone a long way to establishing a comprehensive service.
The demand for the service is still in excess of the amount of
Consultant time available—a temporary remedy was provided by
appointing an Assistant Psychiatrist to cover two sessions at
Stepping Stones.
The work of the Child Guidance Clinic is dealt with in ihe
section on the School Health Service.
SUBNORMALITY
Size of the Problem
As seen from Table I there have been small variations only
in the total numbers of subnormal and severely subnormal cases
in the community. These variations are in the main due to movement
of families in and out of the Borough.
The Young Mentally Handicapped Child
The prediction that Bromley can, according to the national
average (incidence rate for severely subnormals 3.7 per 1,000
births) expect 18.5 such cases to be born each year, has proved
correct.
The Table IV below includes 97 severely subnormal children,
all in their first five years of life, giving an average of 19.6 children
born each year.
Assessment and Parent Counselling
The Health Visitor carries out general support and family
counselling where there is a young mentally handicapped child.
When the child reaches his fifth birthday, the casework is taken
over by the Mental Welfare Officer, or in the event of the child
coming within the orbit of the Education Department, his wellbeing
becomes the responsibility of the Education Welfare Officer.
The instances when the Mental Welfare Officer becomes
involved before the child is 5, have been on the increase—with
the quality of the M.W.O.s work constantly improving, more
and more cases have emerged where the M.W.O. became the
key figure.
The formal and informal links either inter-Departmental (e.g.
Children's or Housing Department) or with other agencies,