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75
Results of Treatment and Disposal of Children.
Of the 74 selected for treatment, 24 had been discharged by the end
of the year no longer needing treatment, 33 were still under treatment
continuing into 1947, and 4 were awaiting vacancies for treatment.
As regards the remaining 13 cases, treatment was suspended in 8,
owing to lack of parental co-operation or removal from area; 2 were
referred to hospital as physical causes were more salient; 1 child was
transferred to a school for physically defective children, and 1 to a boarding
school for maladjusted children. In 1 case referred for a variety of
symptoms including enuresis, the latter remained obdurate to treatment
but the child improved markedly in all other respects.
Of the 74 children selected for treatment, 37 were from the Harrow
area.
Staff.
The 206 intelligence tests, the coaching of 14 children and a number
of school visits, 17 in all, continued through the year to be carried out
by the two part-time educational psychologists, Miss Chaplin and Miss
Frankenstein. At the school visits, not only cases from that school in
attendance at the clinic may be discussed, but also any other children
about whom teachers are anxious for advice.
With regard to the work of the psychiatric social worker, she sees
each mother for an interview lasting rather over an hour, when the
child is first brought to the clinic for diagnosis ; the psychiatric social
worker also visits the home in nearly all cases before child and mother
are asked to attend the clinic; in fact, she may make more than one visit,
for the parent may be out even though an appointment has been made.
The psychiatric social worker also sees each mother week by week,
when the child is brought for treatment, on these occasions spending
approximately three-quarters of an hour with the mother each time.
Fathers are also encouraged to pay one visit to the clinic, by appointment,
whenever it can be arranged, and there has been a greater response
in this respect in 1946.
Besides this, there are a number of parents who have been helped
in the past, who come for a follow-up visit to report progress, or to ask
for further advice. The psychiatric social worker also pays a number of
these follow-up visits at the parents' homes, and one must also include a
considerable burden of other home visits needed to eliminate unsuitable
cases from the waiting list; there were 42 such cases in the year 1946.
Play therapy work has importance not only as treatment, but also
as a diagnostic measure; it is carried out by psychologists trained in the
theory and practice of treating disturbed or maladjusted children by play
methods. Play is the natural expression of all children, and for young
children, apart from dealing with the environment, it is the best, if not
the only therapeutic approach.