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64
MENTAL SUBNORMALITY
By 31st December 1969, 444. mentally subnormal persons were
known to the Mental Health Section, 207 were in hospitals for the
subnormal and 237 were living in the community. Of the latter
number, 98 attended the Kingston Training Centre at Dukes Avenue,
Kingston.
This centre is a purpose built unit and contains a special
care unit for severely retarded physically handicapped children, a
junior training centre and an adult centre and workshops for those
over 16 years.
The Special Care Unit offers twelve places for severely
subnormal children who also suffer from physical handicaps and hence
present special problems with regard to care. Whilst in the unit the
children receive nursing care, and where necessary, physiotherapy and
speech therapy. The advantages to a child who attends this unit are
twofold: firstly, this type of care offers early training and continued
assessment and secondly, the child's family is relieved of the severe
burden of the day to day care that a child of this type presents.
Junior Training Centre. The purpose of a junior training
centre is to bring each severely subnormal child up to its optimum
level of functioning by scientific methods of teaching so that in
adult life the greatest possible degree of independence will be
achieved. The Kingston Junior Training Centre offers a high teacher/
pupil ratio, allowing the children intensive supervision, following
the reorganisation of the centre last year. The pre-school class,
also brought into operation last year, has been most successful,
enabling admission of children between the ages of 3 and 5 years
with results achieved, endorsing the idea that the earlier these
children receive systematic training the quicker they develop.
Adult Training Centre and Workshop. The pattern of work
at the adult training centre comes under two headings:
(i) Light assembly work - obtained from local industry.
(ii) Social training. It has been shown that the failure
of a subnormal in gainful employment is as much due
to his failure in the social sense as it is to his
limited intelligence. Hence the essential balance
between (i) and (ii) is aimed at within the centre
with a view to helping each handicapped person to
achieve the greatest degree of independence of which
they are capable.