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55
During the year under review, the Council accepted financial responsibility
for after-care treatment for ex-mental patients in After-Care Homes,
as follows :-
Four patients were admitted to or already in homes belonging to the
Mental After-Care Association, for varying periods - 1 was resident for 6
months, 1 for 6 weeks, and 2 for 2 weeks.
PARK VIEW THERAPEUTIC CLUB.
This club was transferred to the control of the Council on 3.9.51.,
and is now administered from the Health Department. On that date there
were 48 members of the register, and on 31.12.51 there were 44.
Since the staff of the Runwell Mental Hospital ceased to play an
active part in the administration of the club, the numbers have been well
maintained by personal recommendation of the Psychiatrists attached to East
Ham Memorial Hospital and Runwell. The social activities have continued
under an elected committee of club members, and the Duly Authorised Officers
have assisted in every possible way.
Regular socials and dances are held and at all club meetings the
atmosphere of friendliness and tranquillity does much to turn introverted
personalities, at least for a while, into social men and women, eager for
the comfort and warmth of human companionship.
The Chairman of the Mental Health Committee takes a keen interest in
this work, and it is hoped all Council members will find time to come and
lend support, as occasion may arise, to a splendid effort at self-help in
rehabilitation for sufferers from mental illness.
SECTIONS 28 and 51
The plans for the provision of a second occupation centre for mental
defectives remain as detailed on page 54 of the report for 1949.
The present centre at Katherine Road is overcrowded, and proper
provision for segregation into 'training groups' for different types of
defectives Is difficult or impossible. To add to the problem the
waiting list of children for admission to the centre is growing, and
parents now are more clamant in their demands for some daily respite from
the constant care of their defective children. A second centre, or one
larger and more comprehensive, must soon be provided to answer the needs
of this section of the community.
All guardianship cases are supervised either directly or indirectly
by the Authority.
No. on register on 1/1/51 13
No. admitted to institutions 2
No. of orders discharged by Board of Control
No. on register on 1/1/52 11
+ No. visited by members of Mental Health Committee 6
+ No. " " Medical Officer of Health 5
No. supervised on 31/12/51 by National Association for
Mental Health -
+ Outside area
+ Inside area