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57
After-Care.
So important is this subject regarded by many authorities that
it has been urged that if an Authority spends a certain amount of
money on institutional treatment, twice that amount should be
spent on After-Care. There is much to be said for this statement
since it is well recognised that institutional treatment without
adequate after-care is of little value. We are most fortunate this
year in having an active After-Care Committee to whom we are
able to refer necessitous cases at almost any time. Problems of
suitable employment—Lady members attending to female cases,
and Gentlemen members to male cases—handicraft classes, etc.,
are all being tackled. The importance of removing child contacts
to healthy homes in the country—Grancher system—has all been
under consideration.
It is hoped in the near future to be able to obtain work for
several adult male patients (with quiescent disease) as Car Park
Attendants in the Borough. This part of the Scheme will be
carried out as soon as the Minister of Transport's sanction has
been obtained. Clothing has been provided for a number of
necessitous cases. Some patients are unable to enter sanatoria
on account of shortage of wearing apparel, and it is this class of
patient we are eager to help. Several cases were helped in this
way during the year.
Village Settlements.
Providing sanatorium treatment and a work-training Colony,
enabling the patient and his family to settle on the estate, while
ideal in theory, have, from our experience, not proved very practical.
Patients, to whom the scheme of the Colony has been
fully explained, have, despite this explanation, not settled down to
the idea, and have, after a time, asked to be discharged. Thus
the financial outlay has not been justified.
The Urgent Need for a New Clinic with Adequate and
Hygienic Accommodation.
This matter was referred to in the 1929 report, but the problem
has become so acute that special emphasis must be brought to
bear on the urgency of the position. The place has become quite
uninhabitable and a very real danger to both staff and patients.