London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972

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East Ham 1949

[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for East Ham]

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88
Physiotherapy and Light Clinic.

Attendances continue to increase. Many forms of radiation and electrical treatment are now given for diverse conditions, together with massage, corrective and developmental exercise.

Cases.Treatments.
Artificial sunlight (General)4374,345
Local light4034,553
Electrical and massage881,267
Remedial exercises8505,693
Total attendances—9,487.

The appointment of an Orthopaedic Consultant has not yet
been made and, when necessary, cases are referred to general
hospitals.
Child Guidance Clinic.
Dr. H. Bevan Jones reports as follows:—
At the close of 1948 the Child Guidance Clinic was working in
the Town Hall Annexe with a staff of two; a Psychiatrist and an
Educational Psychologist who each put in two days a week on this
work. The team had to operate without a Psychiatric Social
Worker in spite of repeated attempts to secure one.
At the beginning of 1949, two Psychiatrists were employed,
each giving one day a week and except for this change, the service
continued as in 1948 until mid-summer when the Clinic moved to
the Child Guidance Centre at Shrewsbury Road School. A part
of this school had been converted for the purpose so that there were
four consulting rooms, a conference room, waiting room and office.
The Speech Therapist took over the use of one of the consulting
rooms for the Speech Clinic; a happy arrangement that is proving
valuable to both clinics. One of the Psychiatrists had to reduce
his clinical sessions, after mid-summer, but the Clinic was fortunate
at the time to secure the services of a play therapist for a day a
week. By the end of the year, the Clinic had obtained the services
of a full-time Psychiatric Social Worker and was looking forward
to functioning with a full team for the first time since its inception.
A trend that is becoming evident in the work of the Clinic is
for children to be referred at a younger age. This is a most
desirable tendency as it is found that greater help can be given to