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29
Staffing.
At the end of 1948 Dr. Whatley resigned her position as
Psychiatrist at the Child Guidance Clinic. Dr. Whatley has given
many years' work to the Clinic and has helped to establish it firmly
on its feet through many of the initial difficulties. She will continue
her work as a Child Psychiatrist in other areas and we wish her
every success in the future.
Mrs. I. Seglow, Psychiatric Social Worker to the Outer Areas,
also resigned at the end of 1948 to take up a post abroad. She also
helped to establish the new field of work on sound lines, and our
thanks are due to both her and Dr. Whatley.
In April Mr. P. Secretan was appointed Educational Psychologist
to the Walthamstow area to replace Miss Hammond, and from
then to the end of the year both the Walthamstow and Outer area
had a full team of workers.
Since Mrs. Barker's appointment as play therapist for five
sessions per week in October, 1947, it has naturally been possible to
treat a larger proportion of the children referred.
Selection of Cases.
It is sometimes a very difficult matter for a person not closely
connected with the work of a Child Guidance team to decide whether
a child is suitable for Child Guidance referral or not, and whether
the necessary co-operation from the home will be forthcoming. In
order to eliminate that difficulty as much as possible, an attempt
has been made during 1948 to select the cases for referral by means
of joint discussion between the Educational Psychologist, the
School Medical Officer, the Head Teacher and the parents. The
final decision to refer a child to the Child Guidance Clinic thus
becomes a joint one, and leads to a certain amount of pre-selection
of cases. Throughout the year the number of cases accepted has thus
been confined to the more serious and urgent ones.
Owing to the delay in starting the structural alterations, the
limited space available held up the work considerably.* The referral
waiting list was actually closed for two periods during the year,
owing to the large outstanding number of cases awaiting diagnosis
or treatment. During the year nine members of the staff have been
working in four rooms. It will be appreciated that in work of this
nature the staff need rooms to themselves when interviewing or
treating patients.
We endeavoured to round off the work for 1948 as far as possible
by the end of the year, in order to avoid interruption of many cases
during the unavoidable slowing down in the work while alterations