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6181). Attached to this office are two psychiatric social workers who
advise and help people suffering from mental illness aggravated by social
conditions. The services of a Mental Welfare Officer needed out of
office hours can be obtained by telephoning Ambulance Headquarters
(Wembley 1121) asking for County Control who will arrange for the
message to be passed on to the Mental Welfare Officer who is on call.
A recent development is the holding of a consulting clinic on the
mornings of the fourth Wednesday in each month at the clinic, Elmwood
Avenue, Kenton. This is attended by Dr. Bennett or by Dr. Fidler of the
Mental Health Section of the Health Service of the County Council. This
is particularly useful for helping parents who have only just learnt that
their baby is mentally abnormal in some way.
Children who are mentally retarded but are nevertheless educable,
are admitted to the Shaftesbury School for the educationally subnormal.
Those more retarded and who are considered ineducable might be helped
by attending the Special Training School at Rayners Lane, at which in
the earlier stages emphasis is placed on habit training in order to teach
the children to become socially adapted.
The Harrow Society for Mentally Handicapped Children which is
affiliated to the National Society, works to promote the better appreciation
and the welfare of all mentally handicapped children in the district.
The Mental Treatment Act of 1930 brought about a complete
re-orientation in outlook about the mentally ill. In contrast with what
was the position before, since that time the mentally ill have been accepted
as being persons suffering from an illness from which they might make
complete recovery. It permitted admission to hospitals on a voluntary basis
and provided for out-patient treatment. The tremendous advances in
therapy have only emphasised this point of view, and have brought about
such a revolutionary change that today the vast majority of admissions to
hospitals for the mentally ill are on a voluntary basis, and after comparatively
short periods of stay many go home cured. Since that time
progress has been rapid and knowledge has so grown that a further
advance is due. This has led to the Mental Health Bill, to become in
time the Mental Health Act.
Persons in Need of Care and Attention
The Welfare Department of the County Council has three distinct
duties. Its first is to provide living accommodation for persons who y
reason of age, infirmity or other circumstances, are in need of care an
attention not otherwise available to them. The next is to provide temporary
accommodation for persons who are in urgent need of it. The third is to
provide for the welfare of persons who are blind, or deaf and dumb, or of
other persons who are substantially or permanently handicapped by
illness, injury, congenital deformity or such other disability as may
prescribed by the Minister of Health. For this last group the scheme of
the local authority may provide for: 1. Informing persons to whom the
arrangements relate of the services available to them; 2. Giving such
persons instruction in their homes; 3. Providing workshops where they
may be engaged in suitable work and hospitals where those engaged