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Mental Health Services
TRYING TO PREVENT PSYCHOLOGICAL DISTURBANCE
(1) Primary Prevention - Examples of primary prevention occur when the borough sets up
services to give outlets for physical and mental energies, such as holiday centres for school
children and development sessions in the health clinics for toddlers.
Toddlers attending the latter continue to enjoy mixing with their age group, which will
enable them to make a better start when they first go to school.
For adults and elderly people, social provision are made.
(2) Secondary Prevention - Early detection and treatment of difficulties is sought throughout
the mental health services.
The two Centres for child and family psychiatry work closely with other agents in health
and education, to detect trouble at an early age in an early stage of their development. For this
the Psychiatric Social Worker is a key figure, and since the Kirkdale Centre has had its full
establishment the waiting list has fallen dramatically; whereas Hurst Road Centre is short of
Psychiatric Social Workers, with no drop in families referred over the waiting period.
The Educational Psychologists are available to the schools for difficulties in learning,
which often have psychological background and their work is increasing.
Psychiatric clinics associated with the Mental Health Section continue to do good
business, and a great deal of psychiatric illness amongst adults is contained in the community as
a result. In the case of elderly people, the identification of elderly people alone and at risk of
becoming disturbed by this, continues under the health visiting and social welfare sections.
(3) Tertiary Prevention - This applies where a course of treatment, often in a psychiatric
hospital, is followed by prevention of relapse into the former state by psychiatric rehabilitation,
temporary hostel admission and social measures to prevent isolation.
A local branch of the National Association for Mental Health continues to flourish, as do
the clubs for discharged hospital patients.
CENTRES AVAILABLE
(1) Training Centre for Adult Severely Subnormal People
A second Training Centre was established 1st May, 1967 and currently has 58 on roll.
The second Centre is fully equipped and no senior people now need wait for a place in the Centres.
The Superintendents report further education in matters of every day life, such as use of
the telephone and football fixtures between four Centres in which Waltham Forest showed a good
deal of talent (these fixtures, as expected, help in social morale).
At least three people have left the Centres to enter jobs in the course of the last year.
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