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57
MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES
As a result of the passing of the Local Authority Social
Services Act, 1970, the responsibility for the borough's mental
health services will pass from the Health, Welfare and Children
Committee to the new Social Services Committee and so it would
seem fitting that this Report should be in the form of a review of
the development of the mental health services in Bromley since
the creation of the borough on the 1st April, 1965, at the same
time giving some indication of the work which still lies ahead.
Mental Health Social Work
By April, 1965, the Mental Health Act, 1959, had been in
operation for almost 4½ years and few of the previous Authority's
plans for the development of the mental health service had
advanced sufficiently to be put into effect. Six of the stalf of the
former Kent County Council district offices transferred to Bromley
and were appointed Mental Welfare Officers and paired off to
three area offices to cover the areas of Beckenham and Penge,
Bromley and Chislehurst, Orpington and the Crays, respectively.
Previously these officers, because of the wide range of their former
duties, had carried out very little more than statutory duties with
regard to the care of the mentally disordered.
Right from the start, the concept of the mental welfare officer
as a case worker with statutory duties, was introduced and an
intensive In-service training programme was initiated. In addition
to regular lectures, discussions and visits to various mental health
establishments locally, one large psychiatric hospital generously
arranged for each mental welfare officer to spend a week there and
provided a most informative and instructive programme of
activities.
Consonant with the needs of the service, full advantage was
taken of the facilities offered by the newly formed London
Borough's Training Committee and in that first year the Council
seconded one mental welfare officer to a full time training course
leading to the Certificate in Social Work. Every effort was made to
establish and foster a close liaison with the two other partners in
the health service, the family doctors and the hospitals, who were
very ready to respond to the improved facilities offered.
It was quickly apparent that if the service was to fulfil its
expected role, qualified senior staff would be required to give
direction and leadership to the field officers and in the first eighteen
months, three such appointments were made, one to each of the
three areas.
As the work has increased and the service has developed, it has
been necessary from time to time to increase the number of mental
welfare officers in the area teams until at the time of writing there