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43
SECTION 28 & 51 - MENTAL HEALTH SERVICE
Great changes in the work of the Mental Welfare Officers during the first year of operation of the
Mental Health Act, were not anticipated and in fact did not materialize.
The expansion of community care of the mentally ill (and the subnormal) was possible only with
the full co-operation of the Mental Hospitals in whose catchment area East Ham fell. The great distance from
Runwell and South Ockendon precluded free personal intercommunication between our Mental Welfare Officers
and the various staffs concerned in after care - Doctors, Welfare Workers and others, and efforts were
embarked upon to initiate some form of instruction by ihe Hospital staffs, of our officers in the expanded fields
of mental after-care in the community. To date not a great deal has been achieved and it was hoped to
appoint a special medical officer (of Consultant rank) one of whose duties would be to oversee the referral of
cases to our therapeutic after care club and initiate and maintain the after-care of cases discharged from
Runwell Hospital to community care.
It may well be the relocation of East Ham to the catchment area of a Mental Hospital in closer
proximity to our boundaries may solve this problem.
Statistics
At the end of the year the following patients were under the care of the Authority:-

DAY TRAINING CENTRE
The work of this centre continued to be restricted by the lack of suitable accommodation and other
training facilities.
The transfer of this centre to one of the disused Day Nursery premises, specially adapted for use as
a Day Training Centre will be unfortunately delayed until 1962.
When opened the facilities available will be a great improvement upon those of the previous centre,
but there will still be a need for a ''purpose built" centre with greater accommodation.