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61
MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES
The services provided by a community for its handicapped
members can be said to act as a yardstick to the true success of
that community. The mentally disordered must form one of the
largest groups of the handicapped, with national statistics pointing
to the fact that during their life one in nine women and one in
fourteen men will spend a period of hospitalisation in a psychiatric
unit. Hence, the mental health facilities which are now provided
and those which are planned for the future, must be a measure of the
true success of the community in which we live.
Mental Health Social Workers/Mental Welfare Officers
A mental welfare officer is the social worker of the Mental
Health Service. This highly specialised section of the local authority
Health and Welfare Department is under the guidance and direction of
the Medical Officer of Health, his Deputy and the Principal Mental
Welfare Officer. Dr.J.S.Bearcroft, Consultant Psychiatrist from Long
Grove Hospital serves as a co-opted member of the Health and Welfare
Committee and acts as psychiatric adviser to the Health and Welfare
Department and assists in the appointment of mental health staff.
The duties of a mental welfare officer demand social work
skills together with embracing a knowledge of psychiatric disorders,
psychological medicine, and the sociological factors of everyday life.
Their function is the precare and aftercare of those suffering from
a mental disorder with the aim of helping those people to realise and
define their problems which can be emotional, financial, domestic, or
difficulties of employment, with a view either to solving or helping
them to come to terms with their difficulties. They also have
statutory duties as defined under the Mental Health Act 1959 (under
which a total of 113 mentally ill patients were admitted to hospital:
42 informally and the remainder under the procedures for compulsory
admission).
This work involves close liaison with general practitioners,
consultant psychiatrists and all other social work agencies, plus visits
to out-patient clinics at Kingston Hospital, and attendance at ward
rounds at Kingston and Long Grove Hospitals.
The establishment of the section consists of a Principal
Mental Welfare Officer, his deputy and seven mental health social
workers. The section went through a lean period during 1969 with
regard to staffing. This situation is reflected in a lower number of