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123
Child Guidance Service
I am indebted to Dr. J. R. Hood, M.B., D.P.M., Consultant in Child
Psychiatry, and his staff for the following report:—
The Child Guidance centre provides a consultative service to the
School Health Service, headteachers, general practitioners, paediatricians
and other hospital specialists, the Courts and the social agencies. Its chief
agents are the Consultant Psychiatrist and the Educational Psychologists,
to whom all formal requests for an opinion are addressed. The other
members of the team—Psychiatric Social Workers and Child Psychotherapists
provide a special form of psychological treatment, i.e. psycotherapy,
as a means of dealing with emotionally disturbed children and
their parents.
A Case Conference held weekly is formally orientated to teaching and
it is open to those professional people who refer children or seek advice.
The psychiatrist regularly has colleagues or visitors sitting in at consultations,
notabiy teachers from the Senior Course for Teachers of Maladjusted
Children, University of London, Institute of Education—all
contribute significantly to the clinical work.
A pilot scheme by which the Centre provides a half-way house for a
small number of children unable, for emotional reasons, to attend ordinary
school, has been operating for the past year. It involves the informal
attachment of a special teacher, who works alongside the clinical team.
Altogether, eight children have attended, in classes varying from one to
five in number. There has been virtually 100% attendance from children
who had been out of school for some considerable time. The success of the
above scheme depends on the closest possible co-operation between the
clinical team, the special teacher, and the head teacher concerned with the
child. Special educational and other treatment is focussed throughout on
an early return to ordinary day school, which provides the only adequate
socialising and, in the strict sense of the term, educational experience for
the child.
Number of new cases 115
Other attendances 1,799
(This includes children seen for therapy and parents attending with
them for advice, annual re-examinations of boarding school children;
parents seen alone, apart from treatment sessions, and lastly interviews
with representatives of medical, educational and Social Services,
such as medical practitioners, school welfare officers, health visitors,
etc.).
Total attendances 2,029:
(1) Pupils 972
(2) Parents 1,026
(3) Others 31
Diagnostic cases seen by Psychiatrist:
Total number of cases seen 115