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59
MENTAL HEALTH
It is pleasing to report the good progress made during 1965
in the services for the community care of the mentally disordered,,
Kingston was fortunate in taking over a new combined junior and adult
training centre for the subnormal0 The expansion of the combined
mental health social worker and mental welfare officer staff has been
most encouraging.
Arim-i nistration
The medical officer of health is responsible for the
administration of the services, and the deputy and two senior medical
officers are approved for the purpose of the Mental Health Act. A
consultant psychiatrist from Long Grove Hospital;, who also holds outpatient
clinics at Kingston Hospital, serves as a co-opted member on
the Health and Welfare Committee0 He also acts as psychiatric adviser
to the medical officer of health in regard to the appointment of mental
health staff, and directs the mental health social work at the outpatient
clinics. Even closer integration of hospital and community
services is looked for in the future.
Excellent relationships have also been established with the
physician superintendent of Botley's Park Hospital and the staff of
Queen Mary's Hospital for Children, Carshaltonj both these hospitals
admit subnormals from the bprough.
Staff
The establishment consists of a principal mental welfare
officer and seven other mental health social workers, of whom only
three were appointed by 1st Aprils and only one of whom had acted as a
mental welfare officer, By the 31»t December the staff had increased
to a total of six, five of whom were authorised to act as mental
welfare officers under the Mental Health Act, 1959c
There is a national shortage of suitably qualified staff but
the department has been singularly fortunate as regards recruitment.
One of the original staff was a mental welfare officer of thirty years'
experience, and two others, one of whom has since left the area, had
several years' experience as mental health social workers. The
principal mental welfare officer, appointed on 4th April, is a
qualified psychiatric social worker, and during the year two university
graduates with appropriate postgraduate diplomas joined the staff.
Another member of staff, appointed on 1st April, is a psychiatric nurse
of considerable experience who will be seconded for social work
training at an early date.